Mandarin · Chapter 1 · Lesson 6 · Vocabulary
The sounds of Mandarin
Retroflex against palatal, and the ü. The tongue positions pinyin never shows you, drawn and animated.
Pick a sound, watch the mouth make it, then play the example words and copy them aloud. When a slider appears, drag it slowly and watch which part of the mouth moves - that moving part is the whole difference between the two sounds.
Read the mouth
No sound this time: the mouth moves, you say which sound it made. Nobody else will ever test you on this - which is exactly why it sticks.
Hear it, pick it
One of the two words plays - which did you hear? This is the single highest-value pronunciation exercise there is.
Ear check
0/6
Real words, one sound each: how is the highlighted part pronounced?
How do you pronounce the highlighted sh in Mandarin?
shì
word pageLesson 6 of 7 in this chapter