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Task 4

curriculum/challenges/english/blocks/zh-a1-warm-up-greeting-new-colleagues/68d938aa5911e058ecd6862c.md

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--description--

Pinyin Rule - Tone Sandhi

You've just learned your first word in Chinese, 你好 (nǐ hǎo). You may have noticed that it sounds like ní hǎo. Why?

Both 你 (nǐ) and 好 (hǎo) are written in the third tone (ˇ). But when you say them together, you don't say two third tones. That's hard to pronounce. So Chinese has a rule called:

Tone Sandhi Rule: 3rd Tone + 3rd Tone → 2nd Tone + 3rd Tone

When two third-tone syllables appear together, the first syllable becomes second tone (ˊ) and the second syllable stays third tone (ˇ). You write the original tones, but say them differently.

Here are some more examples of the Tone Sandhi rule in action:

WordMeaningPinyinPronounced
美好beautifulměi hǎoméi hǎo
想法ideaxiǎng fǎxiáng fǎ
很好very goodhěn hǎohén hǎo
手表watchshǒu biǎoshóu biǎo
所以sosuǒ yǐsuó yǐ
可以cankě yǐké yǐ

--assignment--

I've read the article about the Tone Sandhi rule.