Skip to content

听一听

Ting Yi Ting | Listening Makes Perfect

Menu

  • About
  • Introduction
Listening Makes Perfect

Listening Makes Perfect

听一听 (Ting Yi Ting; Listening Makes Perfect) is an online guide that enables learners to hear and identify phonemic categories in Mandarin, including lexical tones, in a variety of phonetic contexts, and to associate those phonemes with correct Pinyin orthography.

1. Romanization of Chinese Sounds (Pinyin)

You may take it for granted that letters represent sounds and can be used to form words that can be “sounded out.” In elementary school, we learn the 26 letters of the alphabet and practice associating those letters with specific

Sheree Willis & Yan Li January 30, 2019November 3, 2021 Initials and Finals Read more

2. Introduction to Tones

In English, people use pitch to indicate different sentence functions or to convey emotional nuance. Try reading these two sentences aloud: You bought a book. You bought a book? Notice the pitch of your voice when reading the second sentence. 

Sheree Willis & Yan Li June 30, 2019September 22, 2020 Tones Read more

3. Initials (m, n, f, l) and Finals (a, ai, ao, an, ang)

In Lesson 1 we examined the use of Romanization to represent Standard Chinese. We also discussed the traditional view that a syllable in Chinese includes three parts: an initial, a final, and a tone.  In the last lesson we looked

Sheree Willis & Yan Li August 12, 2019November 10, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

4. Initials (b, p, d, t) and Finals (o, ou, ong, uo)

This lesson introduces the initials b, p, d, and t as well as the finals o, ou, ong, and uo. These initials sound very similar to equivalent phonemes in English, with some subtle differences. The vowel o does not correspond

Sheree Willis & Yan Li July 31, 2019November 10, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

5. Initials (g, k, h) and Finals (e, ei, en, eng)

This lesson introduces the initials g, k, and h, and the finals e, ei, en, and eng. The first two initials sound quite similar to equivalent phonemes in English but, like the initials in the previous lesson, there are some

Sheree Willis & Yan Li May 4, 2020December 1, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

6. Initial (n, l) and Finals (i, u, ü)

This lesson introduces the finals i, u, and ü and reviews the initials l and n. One important goal of this lesson is to help you identify “front vowels” in Chinese. This concept will help you in subsequent lessons. This

Sheree Willis & Yan Li June 23, 2020December 1, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

7. Initials (zh, j) and Finals (in, ing)

This lesson introduces the initials zh and j, with finals introduced in previous lessons as well as two new finals: in and ing. Let’s start with a small group of exemplars, just to start exploring the distinctions between j and

Sheree Willis & Yan Li June 23, 2020December 1, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

8. Initials ch, q

This lesson introduces the initials ch and q, with finals introduced in previous lessons as well as two new finals. This lesson also refers to the discussion of types of vowels addressed in Lesson 6. You may find it helpful

Sheree Willis & Yan Li July 20, 2020December 1, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

9. Initials sh, x

This lesson introduces the initials sh and x as well as two new finals. This lesson also refers to the discussion of types of vowels addressed in Lesson 6. You may find it helpful to review that lesson before continuing

Sheree Willis & Yan Li July 20, 2020December 1, 2022 Initials and Finals Read more

10. The Initial r

This lesson introduces the initial r, with finals introduced in previous lessons. Here are some exemplars with finals covered in previous lessons. What do you hear in these syllables? You may have noticed that the Chinese r sounds a bit

Sheree Willis & Yan Li June 22, 2020November 22, 2022 Initials and Finals No Comments Read more
  • « Previous

Topics

  • Initials and Finals
  • Tones

Pinyin Input

Contact

Open Language Resource Center (OLRC)
University of Kansas
4070 Wescoe Hall
1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
olrc@ku.edu

Funded by

olrc logo

The contents of this website were developed under grant P229A180008 from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Licensing

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.

Copyright © 2023 听一听. All rights reserved. Theme Spacious by ThemeGrill. Powered by: WordPress.