多 - tone change from duō to duó?

[dsrguru]

I was always under the assumption that 多 is pronounced duō. I've been working through the FSI course (rather slowly), and in the fifth and sixth units of the BIO module, 多大 is taught as duódà and 多久 as duójiǔ. FSI does that kind of thing often (e.g. teaching 中國人 as Zhōngguorén instead of Zhōngguórén and 七個 (likewise for 八個) as qíge instead of qīge or qīgè) to make the pronunciation more accurate, but I have never seen 多 taught as duó in my life. Can anyone, perhaps a native speaker, verify this?

[necroflux]

Not a native speaker but I can attest to the fact that everywhere in Taiwan and China I've been it's definitely pronounced duo1.

If you have questions like this on tones you can check an actual Chinese dictionary online (Chinese to Chinese):

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%A6h%A4%5B&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=1911735170&serial=1&recNo=1&op=f&imgFont=1

That particular dictionary is from Taiwan, tones may change for some words but this one should be as consistent as they get from region to region.

[HashiriKata]

@dsrguru: I'm not a native speaker but your observation above is all correct, and it is quite common for 多大 to be pronounced as duódà and 多久 as duójiǔ. The only thing I'd say is that if you would like to imitate, just imitate the combinations you've actually heard (ie, not yourself create new ones).

(干吗 is also pronounced as gan4ma2, by the way)

[skylee]

Some of the posts in this thread are relevant -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/16749-%e5%a4%9a%e5%b0%91-duo1shao5-vs-duo1shao3

Also take a look at the dictionary of the Taiwan Ministry of Education (the same dictionary quoted by necroflux) -

多　　部首　夕　部首外筆畫　3　總筆畫　6

注音一式　 ㄉㄨㄛˊ

通用拼音　 duó 注音二式　 duó

副

何等、如何。表疑問、感嘆的語氣。如：「多好」、「多高」、「帶大一個孩子是多麼不容易啊！」

[dsrguru]

Thanks guys.

necroflux - My Chinese isn't good enough at present to use that dictionary (and I never bothered to learn bopomofo), but I'm bookmarking it for the future.

HashiriKata - I'm glad to hear that. I think I'll pronounce 多 as duó in the specific combinations in which FSI teaches it as duó, and I'll pronounce it as duō everywhere else.

skylee - I remember glancing through that thread about a month ago, but I didn't notice your post and muyongshi's reply. Thanks. Before posting this thread, I had searched with Google using site:chinese-forums.com rather than with this site's search feature (I got the idea from you), but that thread didn't come up. I think I searched for 多 duó rather than 多 duo2. Note to self: remember to search for pinyin both with tone marks and with numbers. When did that dictionary say to pronounce 多 as duó? I tried using Google Translator to get a very general idea but it came out even worse than normal:

Xi radical and more radical, three strokes of six strokes

Pronunciation of a building ㄨ ㄛ ˊ

Tongyong Pinyin duó Phonetic two-duó

Deputy

How, how. Table doubt, laments the tone. Such as: "good" and "high" and "brought up a child how Burongyia!"

[skylee]

When did that dictionary say to pronounce 多 as duó?

The dictionary says it is used as an adverb (which is what the character "副" means) and pronounced duó in exclamation and to express doubt. Examples are "How nice!" ("多好"), "How hard it is to bring up a child!" ("帶大一個孩子是多麼不容易啊！") , etc.

[dsrguru]

Okay, thanks. That still leaves question phrases like 多大, 多久, and 多少. I'm guessing based on necroflux's and HashiriKata's posts that they can be pronounced either way, but I'm a little wary of this. I think I'll follow FSI (duó) until native speakers tell me it sounds weird.

[zhxlier]

Native speaker here. Born and raised in Beijing, so I can only speak of the situation in Beijing.

My impression: when used as an adverb, 多 can be pronounced as both duo1 and duo2.

When pronounced duo1, it sounds more formal and neutral.

When pronounced duo2, it sounds more casual and/or emotional.

Example, if I'm shopping, I'd ask "多(duo1) 少钱？“ (How much?)

If I learned that someone bought this 4-bedroom luxury house, I'd say "那得花多(duo2)少钱啊！" (Imagine HOW MUCH that would cost!)

But even in these context, duo1 and duo2 are still exchangeable.

Of course, when used an an adjective, 多 is always pronounced duo1 (as in 许多).

[dsrguru]

zhxlier, thank you very much.