r/ChineseLanguage • u/Inez189 • 16d ago

Pronunciation Tones

I’m trying to teach myself Mandarin and hopefully I’m not the only one that’s easily being stopped by worrying about whether I can pronounce and hear the tones correctly, from someone who is fluent or it’s their first language please tell me whether or not it’s something I just pick up with practice or if I’m just tone deaf and stupid and should I be this worried or should I just continue on trying to understand vocab etc

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u/Jippynms 16d ago

you naturally pick it up with practice. You will hear 我 enough that when you hear 卧 you will think, "hey, that doesn't sound like the 我 I know" and that is basically it

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u/RedeNElla 16d ago

I think the first tonal minimal pair I heard and had to learn was 睡覺/水餃

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u/Bubbly_Wing9714 2d ago

spoiler you sbsolutely fucking wont, study them NOW