Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "服务员" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 服务员 in Chinese?

服务员 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /fu˧˥.u˥˩.ɥɛn˧˥/. It means “waiter / server.” foo-WOO-ywen: rising, falling, rising. The last syllable is built on the rounded front ü, not a w-glide.

foo-WOO-ywen: rising, falling, rising. The last syllable is built on the rounded front ü, not a w-glide.

服务员 /fu˧˥.u˥˩.ɥɛn˧˥/

fúwùyuán

Rise, fall, rise — a zigzag with no sandhi anywhere. The first two syllables have nearly identical segments and differ mainly in tone, which makes the pitch contrast unusually exposed. The third syllable then changes vowel type entirely, from a back rounded "oo" to a front rounded ü.

Listen: 服务员

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Sound it out

fú Teeth to lower lip, then a tight rounded "oo". The voice climbs from mid to high.

wù Pinyin writes w only because a bare u cannot start a syllable; what you produce is lip-rounding onto the same tight "oo". The pitch plunges from high to low.

yuán The u in this spelling is ü: tongue high and front as for "ee" while the lips round, then opening to "eh" and closing with a front n. The voice climbs back up.

Hear it in a sentence

服务员，买单！

Fúwùyuán, mǎidān!

Waiter, the bill please!

Listen: 服务员，买单！

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服务员，买单！ pairs the address with a request, and after the comma mǎi dips and dān holds level — mǎi keeps its full descent because dān does not dip. So the utterance climbs, drops, climbs, sinks and levels off. Calling across a restaurant, that final plateau is what carries.

Where English speakers slip

The first two syllables get produced identically because their spellings are so similar — the tone is the only difference and it has to be audible. On the third, "ywan" with a plain w-glide is the standard error, when the tongue must stay forward while the lips round. And the front nasal at the end drifts back to yuáng, which is not a syllable.