Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "帮" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 帮 in Chinese?

帮 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pɑŋ˥/. It means “to help.” bahng with no puff of air, held high and flat. Wide open vowel, back nasal ending, and a level pitch that must not sag.

bahng with no puff of air, held high and flat. Wide open vowel, back nasal ending, and a level pitch that must not sag.

帮 /pɑŋ˥/

bāng

Immune to change, like every level tone. Its practical significance in this word list is as a sandhi blocker: in nǐ bāng wǒ, the pronoun nǐ keeps its full third-tone dip because bāng is level and stands between it and wǒ. Verbs with first tones are useful anchors like this.

Listen: 帮

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Sound it out

b- Lips close and part with the breath held back. There is no voicing either, so the sound sits in a gap English does not have between b and p.

-ang Jaw genuinely down for a broad "ah", then closure at the back of the mouth with ng. The tongue tip should be resting behind the lower teeth for the whole syllable.

bāng (level) High and steady from the vowel through the nasal. The nasal ending is a common place for pitch to drift downward, so hold it right to the end and then cut.

Hear it in a sentence

你能帮我一下吗？

Nǐ néng bāng wǒ yíxià ma?

Can you give me a hand?

Listen: 你能帮我一下吗？

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你能帮我一下吗？ shows 一 doing its trick: it precedes xià, a falling tone, and so becomes a rising yí. Elsewhere in the sentence, nǐ keeps its dip before the rising néng, and wǒ keeps its dip before the converted yí. The question closes on a toneless ma with no rise at all.

Where English speakers slip

Breath escaping after the lips gives pāng, a different syllable, and English speakers add breath to initial stops as a matter of course. Practise with a hand in front of your mouth. The other error is the nasal: bān with a front n is a completely different word, and because the vowel before it is open in both cases, the only difference is where the tongue ends up. For ng, it should end up nowhere near the teeth.