听一听 – Ting Yi Ting | 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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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