Mandarin Tone Sandhi: Rules, Tone Pairs and Practice

Tone sandhi (变调, biàndiào) means a syllable changes its tone because of the tone next to it. Mandarin has three rules every learner needs: two third tones in a row (the first one rises), 不 (bù, not), which becomes bú before a fourth tone, and 一 (yī, one), which becomes yí or yì. A fourth change, the half-third tone, gets less attention, but you'll use it in almost every sentence.

Every example on this page has audio: press to hear it. The audio is the same text-to-speech voice as our pinyin chart. Further down are all 20 tone pairs to drill and a short listening quiz. If the four tones themselves are still new, start with our guide to the four Mandarin tones and come back.

Tone Sandhi Rules at a Glance

Pinyin usually shows the original tones, not the changed ones: you write nǐ hǎo and say ní hǎo. The exception is 一 and 不. Many textbooks print them with the tone you actually say (yí ge, bú shì), while dictionaries usually list them with their original tones (yī, bù). Both are correct, so don't let it confuse you.

Two Third Tones in a Row

When two third tones come together, the first one is said as a second (rising) tone. A full third tone dips and then rises, and two full dips back to back are slow and awkward to say. So the first one simply rises:

• 你好 (nǐ hǎo, hello) is said ní hǎo
• 很好 (hěn hǎo, very good) is said hén hǎo
• 可以 (kěyǐ, can, may) is said kéyǐ
• 水果 (shuǐguǒ, fruit) is said shuíguǒ
• 雨伞 (yǔsǎn, umbrella) is said yúsǎn
• 洗澡 (xǐzǎo, to have a bath or shower) is said xízǎo

The rule works across word boundaries too. 很 and 好 are separate words, and 你好吗? (nǐ hǎo ma, how are you?) is still said ní hǎo ma. Our post on what nǐ hǎo ma means has more greetings to practise it on.

To native ears, the changed syllable sounds the same as a real second tone: 可以 said kéyǐ has the same tone pattern as 牛奶 (niúnǎi, milk). That's handy for practice: you don't need a special "sandhi tone", only the four you already know.

The Half-Third Tone: How the Third Tone Really Sounds

Most charts draw the third tone as a dip and a rise, but you only hear the full dip at the end of a phrase, or when a syllable is said on its own or stressed. Before a first, second or fourth tone, and before most neutral tones, a third tone is said as a half-third tone (半上, bànshǎng): it starts low, sinks a little lower and stops. It never climbs back up.

• 老师 (lǎoshī, teacher): low 老, then a high, level 师
• 好吃 (hǎochī, tasty)
• 很忙 (hěn máng, very busy)
• 可是 (kěshì, but)
• 我们 (wǒmen, we)

This is why so many learners' third tones sound odd: they add the rise every time, as the charts suggest, and 很忙 comes out with an extra rise in the middle: dip, rise, rise. A useful way to think of it: the third tone is the low tone. Aim for the bottom of your voice and stay there. The rise only gets added when nothing comes after it. Our post on 我爱你 shows the same half-third tone in wǒ ài nǐ.

Three or More Third Tones

When three or more third tones come in a row, how they change depends on how the words group together. Work out the groups by meaning, apply the rule inside each group, and then between groups.

• 我很好 (wǒ hěn hǎo, I'm very well) is usually said wó hén hǎo: every third tone except the last rises. Short, light words like 我 and 很 lean on the word after them, so the whole phrase acts as one group. In slow, careful speech you'll also hear wǒ hén hǎo.
• 展览馆 (zhǎnlǎnguǎn, exhibition hall) groups as 展览 (exhibition) + 馆 (hall), and is said zhánlánguǎn.
• 小老虎 (xiǎo lǎohǔ, little tiger) groups as 小 (little) + 老虎 (tiger). 老虎 becomes láohǔ first, so 小 now sits before a second tone and stays a low half-third: xiǎo láohǔ.

In quick, relaxed speech, people often run the whole string together and make every third tone but the last one rise. If you're not sure how a long phrase groups, that's a reasonable default, and you'll be understood either way. The AllSet Chinese Pronunciation Wiki has more examples of each rule.

Third Tone Before a Neutral Tone

A neutral-tone syllable is short and light, and normally a third tone before it is a half-third: 我们 wǒmen, 喜欢 xǐhuan. But when the neutral syllable was originally a third tone itself, the first syllable often rises, as if the 3+3 rule still applied:

• 小姐 (xiǎojie, Miss, young woman) is said xiáojie. In mainland China, avoid calling a waitress 小姐: it can sound rude.
• 哪里 (nǎli, where) is said náli
• 想想 (xiǎngxiang, to think it over) is said xiángxiang

Other words don't rise, even though the neutral syllable was once a third tone. Doubled kinship words (姐姐, 奶奶) and most nouns ending in 子 keep a low half-third:

• 姐姐 (jiějie, older sister)
• 椅子 (yǐzi, chair)

There's no tidy rule that covers every word here, so learn these as you meet them, by ear. Hearing them in whole sentences, again and again, works better than memorising a list.

How 不 (bù) Changes Tone

不 (bù, not) is a fourth tone. Before another fourth tone, it becomes a second tone, bú. Before the other tones, it stays bù.

• 不是 (bú shì, is not)
• 不去 (bú qù, not going)
• 不对 (bú duì, not right)

Before first, second and third tones, nothing changes:

• 不吃 (bù chī, not eat)
• 不忙 (bù máng, not busy)
• 不好 (bù hǎo, not good)

不 also goes neutral, losing its tone completely, in the middle of a few common words, in "verb 不 verb" questions, and in phrases like 看不见 (kàn bu jiàn, can't see):

• 对不起 (duìbuqǐ, sorry)
• 是不是 (shì bu shì, is it or not?)

How 一 (yī) Changes Tone

一 (yī, one) has the most changes, but they build on the pattern of 不:

• Before a fourth tone, it becomes yí:
  • 一样 (yíyàng, the same)
  • 一个 (yí ge, one, with the measure word 个). 个 is usually said with a neutral tone, but its original tone is fourth, and that's what counts.
• Before a first, second or third tone, it becomes yì:
  • 一天 (yì tiān, one day)
  • 一年 (yì nián, one year)
  • 一起 (yìqǐ, together)
• It stays yī when it's said on its own, when you count or read out digits, when it's an ordinal (first), and at the end of a word:
  • 一 (yī, one)
  • 第一 (dì-yī, first)
  • 十一 (shíyī, eleven)
• It goes neutral between a repeated verb, which softens it to "have a quick look" or "give it a go":
  • 看一看 (kàn yi kàn, to have a look)

The ordinal rule explains a classic trap: 一月 (yīyuè, January) keeps yī because it means "month one", but 一个月 (yí ge yuè, one month) changes. In bigger numbers, 一 changes as usual before the next syllable: 一百 (yìbǎi, one hundred), 一万 (yíwàn, ten thousand). Our guide to numbers in Chinese has more on counting, dates and prices.

You may hear some older speakers change 七 (qī, seven) and 八 (bā, eight) to a second tone before a fourth tone as well, as in 八岁 (bá suì, eight years old). It's no longer treated as standard, and most speakers today keep them first tone, so there's no need to copy it.

The 20 Mandarin Tone Pairs

Most of the words you'll learn have two syllables, so the most useful way to drill tones is in pairs. There are 20 combinations: each of the four tones followed by one of the four tones or a neutral tone. Practising them as fixed patterns builds a feel for how tones sound next to each other, which single syllables can't give you.

The rows below are grouped by the first tone. Each word is common, and each recording says it the way it's actually spoken, so the third-tone row has half-third tones and 3+3 is said 2+3.

Two pairs deserve extra attention. In 4 + 4, the first fourth tone doesn't fall all the way, so the second one has room to fall from high again. And in 2 + 3 (and 3 + 3), make sure the rise of the first syllable is clear before you drop into the low second one.

How to Practise Tone Pairs and Sandhi

1. Go row by row, then column by column. Play a row above and say each word straight after it. Then do the same down a column (all the words ending in a fourth tone, say), so you practise each tone in both positions.
2. Hum it first. Hum the melody of a word without the consonants and vowels, then say it. Separating the pitch from the sounds makes it easier to hear what your voice is doing.
3. Draw the tones with your hand. Trace each tone in the air as you say it: flat for the first, up for the second, low for a half-third, down for the fourth. It sounds silly, but it's a quick way to catch a tone that has gone flat.
4. Sort your own words. When you learn a new two-syllable word, file it under its tone pair. After a few weeks you'll have your own list for each of the 20 patterns, and new words will fit patterns you already know.
5. Move up to phrases. Practise sandhi in short phrases you'll actually use: 你好吗? 我很好. 不是. 一起去吧 (yìqǐ qù ba, let's go together). Then build up to everyday phrases and, for a challenge, Chinese tongue twisters.
6. Get feedback on your own voice. Record yourself and compare it with the audio here. For feedback on every syllable, the Chunking Chinese fluency trainer, our sister app, has you answer English prompts in spoken Mandarin and scores the tone of each character, so you can see whether that 很好 really came out as hén hǎo.

Rules help you understand what you hear, but sandhi only becomes automatic after you've heard it in lots of real sentences. That's what Mandarin Mosaic is built for: it teaches through whole sentences with one new word in each, and every sentence has audio, so you hear 一, 不 and the third tone change in context, every day. Our post on sentence mining explains the method.

Test Your Ear: Tone Pair Quiz

Ten words, picked at random from this page. Play each one and choose the tones you hear, not the ones you'd write. Some of them change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tone Sandhi Shown in Pinyin?

Third-tone sandhi isn't: dictionaries and textbooks write 你好 as nǐ hǎo, and you're expected to apply the change yourself. 一 and 不 are mixed. Many textbooks print the tone you say (yí ge, bú shì), while dictionaries usually print the original (yī, bù). Either way, the pronunciation is the same.

Do I Need to Learn Tone Sandhi as a Beginner?

Yes, but only the basics. The 3+3 rule and the changes for 一 and 不 come up in your first week (你好, 不是, 一个), so learn them early. The half-third tone takes a little longer to hear, and the neutral-tone cases can wait until you're comfortable.

What Happens if I Don't Apply Tone Sandhi?

Usually you'll still be understood, because context does a lot of the work. But it sounds clearly foreign, especially a full dipping third tone before every other tone, or 不是 said bù shì. Getting it right is one of the quickest ways to sound more natural.

How Do I Get Better at Hearing the Third Tone?

Listen for low pitch, not for the dip. In connected speech, most third tones are half-thirds, so a low, slightly creaky syllable is the clue. The quiz above and the third-tone row of the pairs are good practice, and so is our pinyin chart, which plays any syllable in all four tones.

Ready to hear tone sandhi in real sentences? Mandarin Mosaic teaches Chinese through sentences with one new word at a time, with audio for every sentence and spaced repetition to make it stick. At the time of writing, there's a 30-day free trial, then a free plan with one lesson a day, or Premium from £7.92 a month billed yearly (£11.95 monthly). Get it on iOS or Android.

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