How to Pronounce '常常': Chinese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 常常 in Chinese?

常常 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʈʂʰɑŋ˧˥.ʈʂʰɑŋ˧˥/. It means “often.” chahng-CHAHNG, both syllables rising, both with the tongue curled back and a strong puff of air. A rare case where a reduplication keeps its full tone twice.

How do you pronounce "常常" in Chinese?

chahng-CHAHNG, both syllables rising, both with the tongue curled back and a strong puff of air. A rare case where a reduplication keeps its full tone twice.

常常 /ʈʂʰɑŋ˧˥.ʈʂʰɑŋ˧˥/

chángcháng

Two rising tones in a row and no reduction, which is worth flagging because most reduplicated words in Mandarin weaken their second syllable. Here the repetition is adverbial rather than affectionate, and the full tone survives. Consecutive second tones are also physically demanding: the pitch has to reset downward between them to climb again.

Listen: 常常

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Sound it out

cháng Curled back and breathy: the curled tip releases into a hollow hiss with real breath behind it, onto a wide open "ah" sealed at the back by ng. The tone lifts from mid to high.

cháng The identical syllable repeated with its tone intact. Unlike 谢谢 or 妈妈, this reduplication does not neutralise its second half — both halves climb, which is what makes the word sound insistent.

Hear it in a sentence

我常常去看电影。

Wǒ chángcháng qù kàn diànyǐng.

I often go to the movies.

Listen: 我常常去看电影。

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我常常去看电影。 keeps wǒ at a full dip before the rising cháng, then delivers two climbs in a row before qù and kàn both plunge. So the sentence rises twice, falls twice, and ends with diànyǐng — a fall and a dip. The double rise at the front is where learners flatten, producing one long plateau instead of two separate ascents.

Where English speakers slip

Under-aspirating gives zhǎng zhǎng, and since 长 zhǎng is a real reading of the same character, the error produces something meaningful but wrong. Push the air on both syllables. The other trap is the pitch reset: after the first cháng ends high, learners start the second one from there and cannot climb, so it comes out level. Drop back down before the second rise.