LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "次" in Chinese?
tsz with a strong puff of air, dropping hard. No vowel in the syllable — an aspirated "ts" that buzzes and plummets.
cì
The drop never changes, and as a measure word it triggers changes upstream: 一 before it becomes a rising yí. That combination — yí cì — is one of the most common counting phrases in the language and is worth storing as a fixed unit rather than assembled from the rule each time.
Listen: 次
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我去过一次北京。
Wǒ qùguo yí cì Běijīng.
I've been to Beijing once.
Listen: 我去过一次北京。
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我去过一次北京。 shows exactly that conversion. Wǒ keeps its dip because qù falls. Then qù plunges, guo fades as a toneless aspect marker, yí climbs, cì plunges, Běi dips, jīng holds level. Note Běi keeps its full descent because jīng is level rather than dipping.
Where English speakers slip
Taking c to be English "k" or "s" is the standard failure, and here it produces nothing resembling the word. Start with an audible "ts" plus breath. Under-aspirating gives zì, a real word meaning character. And "tsee" imports a vowel that is not there — let the tongue buzz at the teeth instead.