Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "电视" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 电视 in Chinese?

电视 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tjɛn˥˩.ʂʐ̩˥˩/. It means “television / TV.” dyen-SHRR, both syllables dropping hard. A tight "eh" in the first, no vowel at all in the second.

dyen-SHRR, both syllables dropping hard. A tight "eh" in the first, no vowel at all in the second.

电视 /tjɛn˥˩.ʂʐ̩˥˩/

diànshì

Both syllables plunge, and no rule intervenes. As always in a double-falling pair the first is compressed and does not descend all the way, while the second takes the fuller drop. Making them identical produces the hammered rhythm that marks a beginner more reliably than any single mispronunciation.

Listen: 电视

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Sound it out

diàn A breathless d, then the -ian final — a quick "ee" glide, a tight "eh", and a front n. The pitch plunges from high to low.

shì Retroflex hiss with the tongue curled back, then voicing in place with no separate vowel. Another full descent, so the word delivers two drops in succession.

Hear it in a sentence

我晚上看电视。

Wǒ wǎnshang kàn diànshì.

I watch TV in the evening.

Listen: 我晚上看电视。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

我晚上看电视。 opens with wǒ and wǎn adjacent, both dipping, so wǒ rises. Then shang fades, kàn plunges, and diànshì adds two more falls. Three consecutive descents close the sentence, each needing its own reset to the top rather than cascading into one slide.

Where English speakers slip

The vowel written -ian opens out to "dyahn" for most learners when it should be a tight "eh". The second syllable draws the usual "she", with a vowel that does not exist. And the wǒ wǎn conversion at the start of the example sentence is easy to miss because both syllables begin with w and blur together.