Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "关" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 关 in Chinese?

关 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kwan˥/. It means “to close.” gwahn with no puff of air, high and flat. Unaspirated g, a rounded glide, a wide open vowel, and a front n.

gwahn with no puff of air, high and flat. Unaspirated g, a rounded glide, a wide open vowel, and a front n.

关 /kwan˥/

guān

Immovable, like all level tones. It pairs directly with 开 kāi in meaning and both are first tones, so the opposition between opening and closing is carried entirely by the consonants and vowels — a rare case where tone offers no help at all in telling two opposites apart.

Listen: 关

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Sound it out

g- Back of the tongue against the soft palate, released silently. Because the lips must round immediately afterwards, they are already pursed during the closure.

-uan A rounded w-glide into a broad open "ah", finished with the tongue tip at the ridge. Three moves in one beat, and the "ah" should be the longest of them.

guān (level) High and unwavering from the glide through the nasal. The nasal is where the pitch most often sags, so hold it up through the closure.

Hear it in a sentence

请关窗户。

Qǐng guān chuānghu.

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Listen: 请关窗户。

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请关窗户。 has qǐng keeping its full dip before the level guān. Then chuāng is another high level syllable and hu is toneless. So after the low opening the sentence sits at the top of the range for two beats and then simply fades out. Two consecutive first tones like this are a genuine test of pitch stability.

Where English speakers slip

Aspirating turns it into kuān, a different word. Keep the release silent. The vowel is the other trap: learners produce "gwon" with a rounded back vowel, because the preceding w-glide pulls the vowel backward. The lips round for the glide and then must open and unround for the "ah". And as always the final n drifts toward ng if you are not watching it.