Mandarin tone trainer

Mandarin has four lexical tones plus the neutral tone. The pairs adults reliably mix up are tone 2 vs tone 3 and tone 1 vs tone 4. This trainer drills the four contours on the same syllable so the only variable is the tone.

Round 1 of 12

0 / 0 correct

What tone is this?

shi¯ (tone 1 below)

How the four tones sound

Tone 1 (high level, ma): sustained, high pitch. The sound an English speaker makes when surprised mid-sentence ("oh, *oh*").
Tone 2 (rising, ma): rises from mid to high. The contour of an English question word ("yes?").
Tone 3 (falling-rising, ma): dips low, then rises. In running speech it frequently becomes a low tone without the rise.
Tone 4 (falling, ma): drops sharply from high to low. The contour of an English command ("no!").

The pairs most learners mix up: tone 2 vs tone 3 (both rise, tone 3 has the dip), and tone 1 vs tone 4 (both flat at first listen, tone 4 falls). Drilling the four against each other on the same syllable is the fastest way to internalise the contour.