How to Pronounce '但是': Chinese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 但是 in Chinese?

但是 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tan˥˩.ʂʐ̩˥˩/. It means “but.” dahn-SHRR, both syllables falling hard. The second has no real vowel — the tongue stays curled back and simply buzzes.

How do you pronounce "但是" in Chinese?

dahn-SHRR, both syllables falling hard. The second has no real vowel — the tongue stays curled back and simply buzzes.

但是 /tan˥˩.ʂʐ̩˥˩/

dànshì

A pair of falling tones with no sandhi between them — Mandarin permits consecutive falls. In practice the first is compressed and does not descend as far, so the word has a short drop followed by a longer one rather than two identical thumps. Levelling them out is what makes learners sound mechanical.

Listen: 但是

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Sound it out

dàn Unaspirated d, then an open "ah" closed with a front n. The tongue tip touches the ridge to start the syllable and returns there to end it, so the whole thing happens at the front of the mouth.

shì A complete relocation: the tongue curls back for the retroflex hiss and then just vibrates in place. There is no separate vowel gesture, which is why the syllable sounds so unlike anything in English.

Hear it in a sentence

我想来，但是我来不了。

Wǒ xiǎng lái, dànshì wǒ lái bu liǎo.

I'd like to come, but I can't.

Listen: 我想来，但是我来不了。

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我想来，但是我来不了。 puts wǒ xiǎng at the front — two third tones in contact, so wǒ rises — and then, after the conjunction, gives you lái bu liǎo, where 不 has been reduced to a toneless bu inside a verb compound. That reduction is the point: in this potential construction the negator loses its tone entirely rather than taking either of its usual forms.

Where English speakers slip

Learners come unstuck on the second syllable, usually producing "she" or "shee". There is no "ee" in it. Curl the tongue back for the hiss and then turn on your voice without moving anything. Beyond that, English speakers often give the conjunction a rising, suspenseful intonation, as English does with "but…", when both Mandarin syllables should fall decisively.