LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "长" in Chinese?
chahng with the tongue curled back and a strong puff of air, rising from mid to high. Wide open vowel, back nasal ending.
cháng
The climb never shifts, but the character does: read zhǎng with a dipping tone it means to grow or to be a senior, so the same written form carries two words with different tones and different meanings. Nothing in the writing tells you which — only the surrounding vocabulary does.
Listen: 长
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
这是一次很长的旅行。
Zhè shì yí cì hěn cháng de lǚxíng.
This is a long trip.
Listen: 这是一次很长的旅行。
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这是一次很长的旅行。 gives yí cì, where 一 has converted to a rising tone before the falling cì. Then hěn keeps its full dip before the rising cháng, and de fades toneless. Lǚxíng at the end pairs the ü vowel with a rising tone. Two separate rises and one converted 一 in a single sentence.
Where English speakers slip
Under-aspirating gives zhǎng, which happens to be the other reading of this same character — so the error produces a real but wrong word. Push the air out audibly. The vowel also tends to close toward "chong", and the back nasal drifts forward to chán. Open the jaw wide and close at the back.