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In Chinese the variation of a syllable's pitch may distinguish meaning. There are four tones, indicated respectively by the tone marks , , and .

Tone	Tone mark	Description	Example
First Tone		high, level pitch	踢 tī = kick
Second Tone		starting high and rising	提 tí = lift
Third Tone		falling first, then rising	体 tǐ = body
Fourth Tone		starting high and falling	替 tì = replace

The first tone is high in pitch and even.

The second tone is the rising tone, starting from a high pitch and rising briefly.

The third tone is a falling rising tone.

The fourth tone is a falling tone, starting high and descending briefly.

There is also a neutral tone. It is short and unaccented. Its pitch relies on a natural extension of the preceding tone. It is conveyed by the absence of a sign.

When one low tone follows another, the first one becomes a rising tone.

Having a good pronunciation depends greatly on getting the tones right.

# posted by ll @ 1:15 AM