LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "哥哥" in Chinese?
GUH-guh: a high level first syllable with an unaspirated g, then a weak toneless echo. Both vowels are pulled back and unrounded.
gēge
The usual kinship reduplication, with the second half neutralised. Because gē is level, the toneless echo sits high — the same behaviour as 妈妈 and the opposite of 弟弟. Filing the whole kinship set together by the tone of their first syllable is an efficient way to learn where each echo lands.
Listen: 哥哥
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我哥哥住在北京。
Wǒ gēge zhù zài Běijīng.
My older brother lives in Beijing.
Listen: 我哥哥住在北京。
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我哥哥住在北京。 keeps wǒ at a full dip because gē is level. Then ge fades high, zhù and zài both plunge, Běi dips, and jīng holds level. Two consecutive falls in the middle need separate resets, and Běi keeps its full descent because jīng is level rather than dipping.
Where English speakers slip
Voice the g English-style with breath and it becomes kē. The vowel is the more persistent problem though: read as an English "eh" or "ay", it fronts a sound that should be pulled back toward a grunt. And restoring a level tone to the second syllable gives gēgē, which sounds like someone spelling the word out rather than talking about their brother.