Post a sample of your pronunciation here!

[UsfMak]

Hello my name is Howard Mak I am a first year student at University of South Florida. I have recorded myself performing a dialog for class. Please let me know how my pronunciation is. Thank you for your help everyone!!

Howard

My first online post.wma

[Hofmann]

In case anyone was wondering: It wasn't me!

OK so I guess they expected to get help. Let's do our share.

tantech:

The range of your tones (the distance between the highest pitch and the lowest pitch) is too small. Either that or you do not heed tones. Tones are important. If you have other pronunciation problems, they are not nearly as significant as your tones.

SillySpencer:

In the syllable quán​, there are two vowels, /y/ and /ɛ/. The /y/ sounds too much like /u/. Raise your tongue when pronouncing it.

Sima07:

Most noticeable is your tones. In general they are fine unless you get them wrong. Examples are that "Bái jiàoshòu" sounds like "bai3 jiao1 shou3 (sorry; to lazy to get diacritics)" and "sìwàn bāqiānkuài" sounds like "si4 wan3 ba1 qian3 kuai1." Do not rush to speak. It is more effective for you to take your time to make sure every syllable is correct. Also, many of the unaspirated initials sound aspirated, such as the "zī" in "gōngzī."

dehuaye:

思 in both places sounds too much like "shi1." The initial should be /s/.

In 床前明月光, the vowel in 明 was not quite close enough. It should be /i/.

疑 sounds too much like "yu2."

In 舉頭望明月, 明 sounded like /wɪŋ/, sounding a lot like Cantonese 永. There is no such syllable in Mandarin.

鄉 sounds too much like "shang1." The syllable "xiang1" is like "yang1" (as in 央) with /ɕ/ in front.

Gu Jiarong:

Can't hear anything.

dehuaye again:

You seem to have problems with the initials "z" "c" and "s," and with finals with diphthongs. "z, c, s" are /ts/, /tsʰ/, /s/ respectively. /ts/ and /tsʰ/ resemble the end of English "cats" only that one is aspirated. I suggest breaking down the diphthongs and saying the individual components slowly before speeding up.

sdourassof:

Tones are important. I think you were talking about buying computers, but the first time I heard it, it was incomprehensible. Slow down, practice syllables and words by themselves, then speed up. Also, not only for sdourassof, Hanyu Pinyin is a way of notating syllables. It should not be interpreted letter by letter. The vowels in "qu" and "chu" are different.

Lots of people. That's all I'm doing for now.

Edited April 14, 2010 at 02:43 AM by Hofmann

[Shi Tong]

I thought I'd ask what you think of my effort.

practice.wma

[doraemon]

In case anyone was wondering: It wasn't me!

What wasn't?

Anyway, ShiTong, yours was great. You seem to be doing everything right. Well done!

[Shi Tong]

Thanks very much doraemon.

I feel a little more confident now, I may comment on other's posts..

Tantech: You sound quite natural and it sounds like you’re trying to sound natural, however, I would say that you’re almost whispering, I can’t really hear what you’re saying. Try to annunciate the words and tones stronger so that we can hear better!

Silly Spence: I think your pronunciation of kuang quan shui is pretty accurate, however, I would say you have a bit of an American accent. The shui is also a bit too second toney, I think you’re trying to add the little rise you’re taught to put in on a third tone, and I would say it’s a bit too much. I think you sound like you're pretty competant overall

Sima_07: Your pronunciation of the sounds is very good, but I agree with Hoffman that some of your tones are out. You also say gong1 zhi4. It should be gong1 zi1. You’re also a little halting, which is a little distracting. I think you need to practice the tones and when you read the Chinese, also use the pinyin to remember the tones as you go. I think you're doing very well though.

Dehuaye: I think yours is very good. Your tones are good and your pronunciation is clear. I think you’re getting a little confused over zh/ch/sh and z/c/s, since you also say gong1zhi1 and shi4wan4. You also out in a slightly odd nian2, which you pronounce a bit like “nen2”.

Kfu001: You need to practice the sound “shi”, I think once you’ve got that down you will sound a lot better, because at the moment it’s affecting the whole of your recording.

Morgoth777: You accidently say “shi2” instead of “shou4” at the start. You also need to practice your tones. I think with more work you can definitely get there because some of the stranger sounds like the “zi1” in gong1zi1, I think you do pretty well on. The only problem is that you’re very slow and halting, so I think you need more practice.

Ktorres728: First of all, your recording is quite quiet, but once I pressed the speakers to my ears, I found that your pronunciation is pretty great. I would say you need more practice with some of the tones, but your sounds are very well reproduced.

Shi shilei: Similarly to Ktorres, I think you’re pronunciation of most of the words is pretty much perfect, but your tones can be a little off sometimes. I think you’re trying hard from the sound of your recording, but I think you need to remember better which tones go with which words.

Si Rida: Again, your sounds are great, but your tones are sometimes out. You’re speaking quite quickly which is pretty smart because it sounds like you’ve practiced a lot. I would say practice your tones.

Anshi: There are a couple of zh/ch/sh/ zi/ci/si mistakes in there. Other than that I think you’re pronunciation is pretty good. I can hear that you’re thinking about the tone of each word as it arrives to you. This means that I think you will be good with tones, but you need more practice saying each word so they come more naturally.

mbebeau: I’m guessing a little to some of the meaning. I think it’s “how much for one ping”, “nine mao”, I think the next one is “At your work you only make 3 kuai”, and then “what is this?”. Because I can understand it I think it’s not bad at all. I would say that you need to remember your tones better and also that a Chinese zh is not like a French j, which I can detect a little.

Guan_Zhenni: Your pronunciation is pretty good. I’d say I can hear you’re thinking about the tones as well, which is good. I think you need more practice overall though.

UsfMak: You sound like a monster through my speakers.. I don’t know how you did that.

Strangely though, I can tell you’re actually pretty good. It’s hard to tell what your tones are like, but it does sound promising. Can you post something with a normal non monster voice please?

How long have you (lot) been learning Chinese?

Myself: Clearly an idiot can pronounce Chinese better than this. GO BACK TO CLASS!

Edited April 14, 2010 at 12:02 PM by Shi Tong

[le fei]

This is a sample pronunciation for my Chinese class, can someone please look over it?

Thank you

Le_Fei_Intro.mp3

[Hofmann]

Continuing.

kfu001:

There are some initials that you do not differentiate, namely those represented by Pinyin s, x, sh; z, z; c, ch. Note that these are distinct. Some finals, such as -ou and -uo don't sound anything like them. I suggest to you and to many others who have pronunciation problems to get a qualified teacher to go over the initials and finals with you. Tables of initials and finals can be found here. Your university professor should have no problem interpreting them.

Morgoth777:

You seem unfamiliar with Hanyu Pinyin and how it represents sounds in Mandarin. Remember that the same letters in different scripts represent different things. Pinyin is not English. By the way, everybody, do you even know what you're saying? or are you just reading the Pinyin? Or maybe you're illiterate in a large part of your vocabularies and so you substitute Pinyin for Chinese? In any case, it's best if you learn characters and associate sounds with them. Pinyin is just a stepping stone.

ktorres728:

Everything except tones were fine. Tones do not seem to have the right contours. I suggest reading about tones in the Beijing dialect and listening to many examples of syllables with different tones. Here is a table of Mandarin syllables in Pinyin, in which if you click on a syllable you should be able to hear examples of them. Note that they lack the neutral tone and short third tone.

Shi Shilei-史詩蕾:

Your tones are fine unless you use the wrong tone. Same suggestions as to ktorres728.

Si Rida:

Not pronunciation related but .wav files are uncompressed, which is why they take up a lot of space. Lossy formats such as .mp3 and .wma take up less space. Consider compressing audio files before uploading. About pronunciation, tones are important. Your professor should not have let you get to this point without tones. Everything else seems fine. In order to incorporate tones into your pronunciation, follow the same suggestions as to ktorres728.

Anshi:

I only heard your /y/ (Pinyin ü used upon possibility for confusion with Pinyin u) once (in yue4), but it sounded too much like /u/. Raise your tongue. I also see a trend within this group of students. Many of them have tone problems. Same suggestions as to ktorres728.

mbebeau:

Tones have problems, just like many others. Same suggestions as to ktorres728. Also, I suggest reading about voice and aspiration, noting the difference between voiced and unaspirated consonants.

Guan_Zhenni:

Your tones are fine unless you use the wrong tone. As it is not as common as with other students, I only suggest being wary of tones on each syllable while taking tone sandhi into account.

UsfMak:

The DSP you applied to the audio file defeats the purpose of posting an audio file of your pronunciation for others to evaluate.

Shi Tong:

I'll set the bar higher for you. The initials represented by Pinyin "sh," "zh," and "ch" are supposed to be voiceless retroflex fricative, unaspirated voiceless retroflex affricate, and aspirated voiceless retroflex affricate respectively. You pronounced them as alveolo-palatal fricatives and affricates. In order to produce retroflex consonants, pull your tongue back so that it is curved upward with the tip about 1/3 of the way from your teeth to the end of your hard palate, and close your mouth more than in alveolo-palatal consonants but not necessarily so that your teeth are touching.

Sometimes you truncate diphthongs such as in "qian" and "duo." One way I suggest to remedy this is to say finals and then add an initial like "yan1 qian1" or "wo1 duo1."

le fei:

You seem to truncate diphthongs. For you, it is more frequent than Shi Tong. Therefore, I recommend breaking down diphthongs and triphthongs into their individual monophthongs, and pronouncing them slowly, and then speeding up.

[Shi Tong]

le fei... your recording was unfortunately too quiet to hear properly on my headphones. You sound like you're attacking whatever you're saying very quickly. I'd say this is a good thing since you show confidence, but I cant really comment on the content.

Shi Tong:

I'll set the bar higher for you. The initials represented by Pinyin "sh," "zh," and "ch" are supposed to be voiceless retroflex fricative, unaspirated voiceless retroflex affricate, and aspirated voiceless retroflex affricate respectively. You pronounced them as alveolo-palatal fricatives and affricates. In order to produce retroflex consonants, pull your tongue back so that it is curved upward with the tip about 1/3 of the way from your teeth to the end of your hard palate, and close your mouth more than in alveolo-palatal consonants but not necessarily so that your teeth are touching.

Sometimes you truncate diphthongs such as in "qian" and "duo." One way I suggest to remedy this is to say finals and then add an initial like "yan1 qian1" or "wo1 duo1."

Thanks Hofmann, I expected the bar to be almost insurpassable

Comments on that are; sh/zh/ch are pronounced in a lighter way (as you suggested) in Taiwan. I certainly know what you mean though, to speak with a more mainland standard accent you would certainly want to push your tongue back further into the roof of your mouth.

Taiwanese have a habit of almost not bothering to move their tongues back in their mouths, producing the sound I made.

Out of curiosity, can you tell me what a truncated dipthong is? I know that I put a "sound" in between the d and the uo final, is this the particle we're talking about.. and what can I do with it to make it right? Would I want to eliminate that sound, therefore making it a more clean movement between the d and the uo, or am I not pronouncing that sound enough, therefore create more of a dipthong between the d and the uo?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks to Hofmann.. your explainations of vocal problems are deeper and better than mine!.

[Hofmann]

What I describe as truncating diphthongs is turning them in to monophthongs by removing a vowel. For example, the final of "duo" has two vowels /u/ and /ɔ/. In one instance you removed /u/ so that you say /tɔ/.

[Shi Tong]

Hello Hofmann, I think I know what you mean, and forgive me for using zhuyin, but you mean I'm missing the ㄨ part in the ㄉㄨㄛpronuncition, or I'm squashing it (truncating it?) to the point where it's not as audible as it should be?

Thanks very much for the advice

[Suser]

I know its kinda of late but here is my dialog pronunciation. I would greatly appreciate your feedback on my pronunciation. Thanks!

Zhāng Róng: Bái jiàoshòu, gōngzī de shì wǒ bù-qīngchu. Qǐng nín kàn yíxià....

Bái jiàoshòu: N. Xìn-shang shuō nǐ yìnián zhèng sìwàn bāqiānkuài qián. Yíge yuè zhèng sìqiānkuài qián. Bùbì fùshuì.

Zhāng Róng: Hǎo. Xièxie nín bāng wǒ máng.

Qǐngwèn, nín gōngzī duōshao?

Bái jiàoshòu: Ē...a....., bù-duō

dailog.wma

[Bai Side]

Ni mai zheben shu hua-le dushao qian?

Hua-le sankuai wumao jiufen qian.

Frank.mp3

[ChangAiling]

Hey guys, here's a dialogue in my Chinese textbook. Any help is appreciated

ChangAiling.wav

[MissChin]

Words that begin with "X" seem to be giving me a lot of trouble, specifically the words " xiě​ " and " xué " ... please help in any way that you can!

Xie and Xue.wav

[mbebeau]

Hi guys, thanks for the input on the last post, I do think it helped me a good bit.

I was hoping you could give me some advice on another pronunciation from my book.

Fang Jingli: Wo Shemme Shihou dao Shanghai kaihui?

Sheng Mishu: Xiage Yue Shiwihao. Jipiao, fangjian dou yijing anpai haole.

Fang Jingli: Haode. N, Shiwuhao shi xingqiji?

Sheng Mishu: Shi libaisan. Ni xiawu kaihui.

Thanks in advance. (By the way, I do know I have a slight mispronunciation on Jipiao but that was the best one... )

Chinese Project Week 2.mp3

[le fei]

yusan

[Shi Tong]

1) Suser:

Your pronunciation is pretty good, bar a couple of issues. Your tones are quite accurate, and you seem to struggle less with this than some others. You do pronounce a few words wrong, with an emphasis on the problems of zh/ch/sh/ j/q/x- for example you seem to say baijiao "shao4" and this should be shou4, you say gong1zuo4 instead of gong1zi1, and your pronunciation of the duo1shao3 at the end is somehow wrong.

I wonder if you're saying gong1zuo4 by accident because this means "work" rather than "wages". Other than that, great, keep practicing!

2) Bai Side:

You seem to have your pronunciation very well pinned and I couldn't really come up with any strong examples of what's "wrong". Your tones can sometimes be off, but I think with a bit more practice you will really hammer it down!

3) Chang Ailing:

I think your pronunciation is pretty exceptional and your tones seem very sound... keep up the good work!

4) Miss Chin:

You're struggling with this a little, but not as much as you think- xiě​ is pretty good as a pronunciation, but your tone was a little strange. However, I think your xué is a problem with the middle sound. I think you're saying or concentrating on an "ooo" sound (u) and what you need is an (ü) sound.

This sound is notoriously annoying to pronounce for English speakers. I would suggest learning that again from scratch and then trying to insert it between other sounds (like xüé!!)

5) mbebeau:

I think you're doing really quite well, I would say you might need more practice because you do seem a little halting. You also have a couple of tonal issues and mispronunciations, but I think if you were to go over that text and think about the meaning of every word as you said it, you'd flow a lot better

Hope these are good explainations!

[yinbobobo]

Hello, I am in the same class as all these other folks. Here's a transcript of what I am saying (or at least what I am TRYING to say):

Ōuyáng tóngxué, nǐ zhèliàng chēzi hěn hǎo. Shì xīnde háishi jiùde?

Bù-xīn. Shì yī-jiǔ-bā-jiǔnián de Fútèpái.

Nǐ shì gāng mǎi de ma?

Bú-shì. Shì qiánnián mǎi de

Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will be taken seriously!

Untitled (12).wma

[Hofmann]

Suser,

Tones seem to be better than average. Diphthongs get truncated. Wrong initials and wrong finals once in a while. What to do? Uhh....................................I don't know. There are only a few ways to correct random mistakes. The easiest is just being more meticulous.

Bai Side,

Wtf. No tones. Not even in your Pinyin. Tones are important. The rest seems fine.

ChangAiling,

第一次聽不懂。第二次聽不懂。Am I the problem? No, I don't think so. I can understand the PSC examples fine. It seems perhaps your tones need work. You might have mixed up some initials too, but I can't tell without a transcript.

MissChin,

"x" sounds fine, but in the syllables "xiě​" and "xué," the vowels in the finals are incorrect. Furthermore, no tones. This almost sounds like an audio file I posted a while ago.

mbebeau,

I forgot how you spoke last time and I'm too lazy to go get it. It seems you aren't used to Pinyin. Get to know it. Also, try not to let English speech rules interfere with Chinese phonology. In English, questions are sometimes made by a raise in pitch at the end of an utterance. This is not used in Mandarin. Kill it. Bury it. Nuke the ground above it.

yinbobobo,

Then take this seriously. This is not just to yinbobobo. Many of you initially attempt to speak at normal speeds correctly. It is easier to do many things slower than faster. That is why musicians practice music slowly and then gradually speed up. If they try to play something at a slower speed and still mess up, they slow down even more. Their learning method is thus: perfect slowly, then perfect a little faster, then perfect a little faster, and eventually perfect at desired speed. It is not like this: crappy at normal speeds, a little less crappy at normal speeds, a little less crappy at normal speeds, and eventually perfect at normal speeds. Many of you can benefit from slowing down and being more meticulous. I will post an example.

slow practice.wma

[asingh]

I am not sure how to write the pinyin but this is what i am trying to say

Tongsheng: Ni kanyangzi hen lei.Xiexie ba.

Du Qiu: Yihuir chirfan de shirhou ni jiao wo yisheng a

Tongsheng: Hao Hao

chinese.mp3