LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "告诉" in Chinese?
GAO-su, with a hard falling first syllable and a weak toneless second. The g has no puff of air.
gàosu
The second syllable has been neutralised, which is common in two-syllable verbs of this kind. The word therefore has a strong-weak rhythm rather than a fall-fall one, and pronouncing su with its dictionary tone makes the verb sound stiff and over-enunciated in ordinary conversation.
Listen: 告诉
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
请告诉我你的名字。
Qǐng gàosu wǒ nǐ de míngzi.
Please tell me your name.
Listen: 请告诉我你的名字。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
请告诉我你的名字。 opens with qǐng, a third tone, followed by the falling gào — so qǐng keeps its dip since no third tone follows it. Then su goes toneless, wǒ dips, nǐ dips again, de is toneless, and míngzi rises then fades. The sentence has three separate weak syllables, which is what gives it its conversational flow.
Where English speakers slip
Learners regularly restore the fourth tone to su, producing gào sù with two heavy beats, which is how the word looks in a dictionary but not how it is said. Let the second syllable go slack. The g is the other risk: aspirating it gives kào, a different word entirely, and English speakers add that breath automatically at the start of a stressed syllable.