Mandarin has four tones plus a light “neutral” tone, and pinyin shows them with a mark above a vowel. This guide covers the handful of rules you need: what the marks mean, where they go, and the few cases where the tone you say differs from the one in the dictionary.
The four tones and the neutral tone
| Tone | Mark | Example | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | ā | mā 妈 (mother) | High and level |
| 2nd | á | má 麻 (hemp) | Rises, like a question |
| 3rd | ǎ | mǎ 马 (horse) | Dips low (and rises if said on its own) |
| 4th | à | mà 骂 (to scold) | Falls sharply |
| Neutral | none | ma 吗 (question word) | Short and light |
If you type pinyin with tone numbers instead, the number goes after the syllable: ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4, and ma5 or ma0 for the neutral tone.
Which vowel gets the tone mark
Each syllable has exactly one tone mark. When a syllable has more than one vowel, follow these rules in order:
- If there’s an a or an e, it takes the mark: hǎo, méi, xiè, guāng.
- In ou, the o takes the mark: dōu, zhōu, gǒu.
- Otherwise, the mark goes on the last vowel: guó, liù, guì, shuǐ.
Two details trip people up:
- i loses its dot when it carries a mark: the mark takes the dot’s place, as in nǐ and qí.
- ü keeps its dots under the mark: lǜ 绿 (green), nǚ 女 (woman). After j, q, x and y, ü is written as plain u, because those letters are never followed by a plain u sound: qù 去 is pronounced with ü.
The neutral tone
Some syllables are said quickly and lightly, with no tone of their own. They have no mark. The neutral tone is common in:
- Particles such as 吗 ma, 呢 ne, 的 de and 了 le.
- The second half of repeated words such as 妈妈 māma (mom) and 谢谢 xièxie (thank you).
- Many everyday two-syllable words, where the second syllable often loses its tone. Dictionaries show which ones, and usage differs by region: speakers in Taiwan and southern China use the neutral tone less often than speakers in Beijing.
Tone changes in speech (tone sandhi)
In a few cases, a syllable’s tone changes depending on the tone that comes after it. Linguists call this tone sandhi. There are three rules worth knowing.
Two 3rd tones in a row
When two 3rd tones come together, the first one is said as a 2nd tone:
- 你好 is written nǐ hǎo but sounds like “ní hǎo”.
- 很好 is written hěn hǎo but sounds like “hén hǎo”.
This change is never written in pinyin. Textbooks and dictionaries keep the original 3rd tones, so you have to apply this rule yourself when speaking. With three or more 3rd tones in a row, the result depends on how the words group together, so listen to native speakers for those.
A related tip: a 3rd tone before any other tone is usually said as just the low dip, without rising back up. The full dip-and-rise mostly appears when a 3rd tone is said on its own or at the end of a phrase.
不 (bù, “not”)
不 is normally 4th tone, bù. Before another 4th tone, it changes to 2nd tone:
- 不是 bú shì (is not)
- 不对 bú duì (not right)
- but 不好 bù hǎo (not good), because hǎo is a 3rd tone
In questions like 好不好 hǎo bu hǎo (“is it good?”), the 不 in the middle is light and becomes neutral.
一 (yī, “one”)
一 has the most rules, but they follow the same idea:
- On its own, in counting and in numbers, it stays yī: 第一 dì yī (first), 十一 shí yī (eleven).
- Before a 4th tone, it becomes yí: 一个 yí gè (one of something), 一样 yí yàng (the same).
- Before a 1st, 2nd or 3rd tone, it becomes yì: 一天 yì tiān (one day), 一年 yì nián (one year), 一起 yì qǐ (together).
- Between two repeated verbs, it’s neutral: 看一看 kàn yi kàn (take a look).
Unlike the 3rd-tone rule, the changes for 一 and 不 are often written in learning materials, though most dictionaries still list the original tone. PinyinKit shows the spoken tone and highlights it, and you can switch this off to match your dictionary.
Writing pinyin: spaces and apostrophes
Officially, pinyin is written word by word, not syllable by syllable: Zhōngguó (China), péngyou (friend). Many learning materials put a space between every syllable instead, which makes each character easier to match to its sound. Both are common.
When a syllable starting with a, e or o follows another syllable inside a word, an apostrophe marks the break: Xī’ān 西安 (the city, two syllables) is different from xiān 先 (first, one syllable).
Practice
The fastest way to absorb these rules is to see them on real text. Paste a sentence into the pinyin converter and look for the highlighted syllables: those are the spoken tone changes for 一 and 不. If you need to type tone marks yourself, see how to type pinyin tone marks.