Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "过" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 过 in Chinese?

过 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kwo˥˩/. It means “to pass / to cross; (after a verb) to have done before.” gwor, dropping hard. Unaspirated g, then a rounded glide from "oo" out toward "aw".

gwor, dropping hard. Unaspirated g, then a rounded glide from "oo" out toward "aw".

过 /kwo˥˩/

guò

In careful speech it falls, but this character has a second life as a toneless aspect marker after verbs — qùguo, chīguo — where it loses its pitch entirely. So the same character is a full falling tone as a main verb and a weightless suffix in its grammatical role, and knowing which one you are producing matters.

Listen: 过

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Sound it out

g- Back of the tongue against the soft palate, released silently with no puff of air. English g buzzes; this one does not.

-uo Two vowel positions in one beat: rounded "oo" opening to "aw". Skipping the rounded start reduces it to a plain "oh", which is a different final.

guò (falling) High to low across the glide. The pitch and the mouth are moving independently, and controlling both at once is the real work of this syllable.

Hear it in a sentence

时间过得很快。

Shíjiān guò de hěn kuài.

Time passes quickly.

Listen: 时间过得很快。

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时间过得很快。 puts guò between the level jiān and the toneless de, then finishes with hěn kuài — and hěn keeps its dip here, since kuài is a fourth tone rather than a third. The sentence therefore has one clear fall in the middle and another at the end, with a flat stretch between them.

Where English speakers slip

Learners flatten -uo to "oh", losing the rounded onset, and simultaneously aspirate the g into kuò, a different word. Take them one at a time: silent release first, then the two-part vowel. The suffix use is the third trap — pronouncing the aspect marker with a full falling tone makes past-experience sentences sound oddly emphatic.