Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "放" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 放 in Chinese?

放 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /fɑŋ˥˩/. It means “to put.” fahng, dropping hard. An ordinary f, a wide open vowel, and the back nasal of "song".

fahng, dropping hard. An ordinary f, a wide open vowel, and the back nasal of "song".

放 /fɑŋ˥˩/

fàng

The verb itself is tonally inert. As an imperative verb it commonly follows 请 or 把, and there the interesting change happens upstream: qǐng bǎ puts two third tones in contact, so qǐng rises before the sentence even reaches this verb.

Listen: 放

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Sound it out

f- Upper teeth on lower lip, exactly as in English "fun". One of the few Mandarin initials that needs no adjustment at all for an English speaker.

-ang A broad open "ah" with the jaw down, closed at the back of the mouth with ng. Longer and more open than the vowel in English "fang".

fàng (falling) From high to low across the vowel and into the nasal. The nasal ending gives the fall extra length, so it should be a smooth descent rather than a clipped drop.

Hear it in a sentence

请把书放在桌子上。

Qǐng bǎ shū fàng zài zhuōzi shàng.

Put the book on the table.

Listen: 请把书放在桌子上。

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请把书放在桌子上。 opens with exactly that sandhi — qǐng and bǎ are adjacent third tones, so qǐng becomes rising: qíng bǎ. After that the sentence delivers three falling tones with breaks between them: fàng, zài and shàng, separated by the high shū and the high-plus-toneless zhuōzi. Each fall must restart at the top rather than sliding on from the last.

Where English speakers slip

Expect the vowel to come out too tight — English "fang" has a flat front vowel where Mandarin wants a wide open "ah". Drop the jaw. The nasal, as always, drifts forward to fàn, which is a real and very common word meaning rice or a meal, so this is a contrast with genuine consequences at the dinner table.