Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "分钟" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 分钟 in Chinese?

分钟 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /fən˥.ʈʂʊŋ˥/. It means “minute.” fun-JOONG, both syllables high and flat. An ordinary f, then an unaspirated retroflex with a rounded vowel.

fun-JOONG, both syllables high and flat. An ordinary f, then an unaspirated retroflex with a rounded vowel.

分钟 /fən˥.ʈʂʊŋ˥/

fēnzhōng

Level throughout, on both halves with no movement anywhere, and a built-in nasal contrast: front on the first syllable, back on the second. Since both carry the same tone, the endings are the only difference, which makes the word a tidy self-check for a distinction English does not enforce.

Listen: 分钟

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Sound it out

fēn A labiodental f, upper teeth on lower lip, then a short central vowel closed with the tongue tip at the ridge. Held at the top of the range.

zhōng Curled tip, hollow release, breath held in — onto a rounded vowel nearer "oo" than "oh", sealed by the back nasal. Also level, so the word never moves.

Hear it in a sentence

还有五分钟。

Hái yǒu wǔ fēnzhōng.

Five more minutes.

Listen: 还有五分钟。

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还有五分钟。 has yǒu and wǔ adjacent, both dipping, so yǒu rises: hái yóu wǔ fēnzhōng. Then the two level syllables close the sentence on a plateau. So the utterance climbs, climbs again, sinks to the floor, and then holds high for two beats — a shape that ends without resolving downward.

Where English speakers slip

The nasals get merged so that both syllables rhyme. Feel where the tongue finishes: forward for fēn, nowhere near the teeth for zhōng. The retroflex flattens into an English j, and the -ong vowel opens out to an English "ong". And the yǒu wǔ conversion in the example sentence crosses a word boundary, which is where beginners stop looking.