Mandarin · Chapter 1 · Lesson 3 · Grammar primer
Tones
Grammar for HSK 1.
The short version
Mandarin has four tones, and the tone is the word
The 1st tone is high and level (mā), the 2nd rises (má), the 3rd is low and dips (mǎ) and the 4th falls hard (mà). A fifth, the neutral tone, is short, light and unmarked. Change the tone and you change the word: 妈 (mā) is mother, 马 (mǎ) is horse.
妈，麻，马，骂 mā, má, mǎ, mà
Two third tones in a row: the first one rises
When a third tone meets another third tone, the first is said as a rising 2nd tone. So 你好 (nǐ hǎo) is said ní hǎo, and 很好 (hěn hǎo) is said hén hǎo. Pinyin keeps the original marks; your voice makes the change every time.
你好！ Nǐ hǎo!
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end. There are 22 in all: practise more afterwards if you want them.
Lesson 3 of 21 in this chapter