LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "干净" in Chinese?
gahn-JING: a high level first syllable with an unaspirated g, then a hard-falling second. Front n on one, back nasal on the other.
gānjìng
Level into falling, with no rule in play. Like 上班, this word contains its own nasal contrast: the first syllable ends with the tongue tip forward, the second with the back of the tongue up. If both endings feel the same in your mouth, one of them is wrong, and this is a cheap way to test yourself.
Listen: 干净
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
厨房很干净。
Chúfáng hěn gānjìng.
The kitchen is clean.
Listen: 厨房很干净。
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厨房很干净。 keeps hěn at a full dip before the level gān — no sandhi, since gān does not dip. Before that, chú rises and fáng rises again, so the sentence climbs twice, sinks to the floor on hěn, jumps to the top for gān and plunges on jìng. That is a lot of vertical range for five syllables.
Where English speakers slip
An audible release on the g gives kān. Keep the release silent. The nasal merger is the other issue and it runs both ways: gāng-jìng or gān-jìn are both common learner outputs, and both lose the contrast the word is built on. Say the two syllables slowly as a minimal pair before putting them together at speed.