LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "不客气" in Chinese?
boo-KUH-chi. The first syllable rises rather than falls — that is a tone change, not the dictionary tone of 不 — and the middle one drops hard.
bú kèqi
This phrase demonstrates the 不 rule in the wild. 不 is a fourth tone by default, but immediately before another fourth tone it switches to a rising second tone. Since kè is falling, 不 becomes bú, and the pinyin here already shows it. The last syllable qi has lost its tone entirely, so the phrase runs rise-fall-nothing.
Listen: 不客气
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
不客气，请坐。
Bú kèqi, qǐng zuò.
You're welcome, please sit down.
Listen: 不客气，请坐。
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不客气，请坐。 follows the polite formula with an equally polite instruction, and the second half is a clean pair of contrasting tones: qǐng sits low, zuò drops. Notice that both halves of the utterance end on their weakest material — a toneless qi, then a short clipped zuò — which is why the whole thing sounds gentle rather than clipped.
Where English speakers slip
Most learners memorise 不 as bù and say bù kèqi, which sounds like two hammer-blows in a row and is exactly what the sandhi rule exists to prevent. The other frequent slip is swapping the aspiration on k and q: English speakers often produce an unaspirated "g"-like sound in kè and then over-aspirate elsewhere. Kè needs the audible puff; feel it on your palm.