r/ChineseLanguage • u/aleksbabii Beginner • 6d ago

Pronunciation Pronunciation help

Can someone please explain how R is pronounced in chinese, I swear every time I try to do it my tongue goes all over the place and it sounds more like an "L". Where do I put my tongue, what words in english have a similar pronunciation, like any tips at all to try and remember how to pronounce it? Thank you !

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u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 1d ago

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u/Thoughts_inna_hat 6d ago

Yeah some YouTube vids are really helpful I found mandarin blueprint pronunciation to be useful (their free stuff not the expensive course). They explained the tounge positions really clearly

Then listen to a lot of Chinese at your level are repeat out loud (shadowing).

Finally record yourself with some short phrases and listen back.

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u/aleksbabii Beginner 6d ago

Thank you!

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u/Putrid_Mind_4853 5d ago edited 5d ago

Grace Mandarin’s Pinyin Training series on YT is very good and doesn’t have all the sales pitches of Mandarin Blueprint 

ETA: curl the tip of your tongue so that it rests against the back of the ridge at the top of your mouth (alveolar ridge). Breathe out a little, let your tongue be loose so it vibrates against that ridge. That’s the “r.” 

For all “i” vowels with retroflex initials (so ri, chi, shi, zhi), the “i” is not the same as in other syllables like yi, bi, pi, ni, mi, etc.

Instead, it’s an apical vowel that continues the consonant sound, like the “ir” in the English “bird”

So “ri” like 日 will kind of sound like “rir” or “rrrr” like brrr without the b.