Mandarin has four principal lexical tones and a neutral tone; the syllable ma illustrates the distinction.
Verified vocabulary and pronunciation#
The Open University introduces the four marked tones and the unmarked neutral tone. CC-CEDICT distinguishes mā 妈, mother; má 麻, hemp among other meanings; mǎ 马, horse; mà 骂, to scold; and neutral-tone ma 吗, a yes–no question particle. These are selected entries, not a claim that each sound or character has only one meaning.
| Word | Reading | Selected meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 妈 | mā | mother |
| 麻 | má | hemp |
| 马 | mǎ | horse |
| 骂 | mà | scold |
| 吗 | ma | yes–no question particle |
Practice and interpretation#
Listen before comparing the five forms. Practise a marked tone in isolation, then in a short phrase. A tone mark identifies a lexical category; it does not measure every moment of pitch in connected speech. Avoid inventing a fixed number of months required for every learner to master pronunciation.
References and lexical-data licence#
Lexical entries are adapted and selected from CC-CEDICT contributors, distributed by MDBG, release retrieved 23 October 2026, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Meanings are abridged and numbered pinyin is converted to tone marks. Practice instructions are newly written.