Polyphones in Chinese

Polyphones are very common in Chinese language. A polyphone is a character that can be pronounced in two or more different ways. With different ways of pronunciation, the polyphone usually has different meanings. Being able to use polyphones in Chinese properly will help us a lot in Chinese Learning. In this article, we are going to review the common polyphones.

1. 好 There are two ways to pronounce it - hao3 and hao4. When pronounced in the third tone, it means well or good, as in the phrase 好人 (a good guy) or 好天气 (good weather). When pronounced in the fourth tone, it means “to like”. However, it is seldom used alone, but usually used with another word such as 喜好 and 爱好, both of which have the meaning of “to like”.

2. 行 It is one of the most common words that you will encounter on street signs. For example, we have 请绕行 and 银行. However, it pronounces different ways in the two phrases. In the first phrase请绕行, it is pronounced xing2, which means “to go”. The whole phrase means “Please go the other way.” It is pronounced hang2 in the word 银行, which means “bank”.

3. 赃 This character has two pronunciations. They are zang1 and zang4. The first tone, zang1, means that something is really dirty and is an adjective. The second tone, zang4, is usually used as a noun such as 心脏, which means heart.

4. 假With two distinct tones, jia3 and jia4, this character is easy to read and remember. Jia3, means fake. It can be used as an adjective, such as the word假如(if). It can be used as a noun such as, Jia4, 假期, which means vacation.

Learn Chinese everywhere

Many people across the world are beginning to learn Chinese mandarin, even kids in America has begun to learn pinyin at their kindergartens. Take America as an example, from kindergartens to a high school, there is a rapid rise in interesting among American pupils to study Chinese language.

There are many reasons why learning Chinese has become so popular, especially nowadays. First, Chinese has long history full of legends, which attracts many who want to know about its history and culture, thus learning the language. Second, Chinese is spoken by the largest population in the world. Third, China’s international influence has been raised a lot nowadays. Furthermore, the rapid economic development is still undergoing since long time ago and mastering a foreign language means more opportunities in the career.

More and more foreigners' learning Chinese reflects the economic development in China. On the other hand, over two hundred Confucius institutes have been set up in 69 countries. On TV we can see many foreigners take part in Chinese class online. The number of foreign students who are attracted by the mysterious and charming language and come to china learning Chinese also increases steadily every year.

The Chinese is Coming

The Chinese is coming! I do not mean the Chinese people are coming, but the Chinese language is coming! If so, are you ready for the Chinese language learning?

Why are the Chinese studies becoming so popular? There are some reasons. First, Chinese has long history full of legends. Second, Chinese is spoken by the largest population in the world. Third, China has raised its international influence, furthermore the rapid economic development dramatically. Fourth, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has provided a good chance to show the Chinese culture to the world, and thus attracted more foreigners to study Chinese.

As a Chinese tutor, I'm very pride myself on the popularity of Chinese language. The fact that more and more foreigners study Chinese reflects China’s economic development in a sense. Take America as an example, from kindergartens to a high school, there is a rapid rise of interest among American pupils to study Chinese language. On the other hand, over two hundred Confucius institutes have been set up in 69 countries; from TV we can see many foreigners take Chinese learn online. The number of foreign students who are attracted by the mysterious and charming language and come to china learning Chinese also increases steadily every year.

While Chinese learn online is a fever among foreigners, many Chinese learners tend to ignore the importance of their mother tongue, grammatical mistakes constantly occur in their essays, not to mention coarse wording and improper style. That’s why we should attach equal importance to our mother tongue when we study Chinese.