Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "坏" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 坏 in Chinese?

坏 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xwaɪ˥˩/. It means “bad / broken.” hwai, dropping hard from high to low. A scraped h, immediate lip-rounding, then the diphthong of "eye".

hwai, dropping hard from high to low. A scraped h, immediate lip-rounding, then the diphthong of "eye".

坏 /xwaɪ˥˩/

huài

Unmoved itself, but it forces a change to its left: 不坏 becomes bú huài. It sits close to 快 kuài and 怀 huái, which differ by initial and by tone, so both the friction on the h and the direction of the pitch are carrying information here.

Listen: 坏

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

h- Back-of-mouth friction rather than a soft breath. It has to be audible, because the rounded glide that follows will otherwise swallow it.

-uai Three positions in a beat: rounded "oo", wide open "ah", then closing toward "ee". One of Mandarin's longest finals, and all three parts should be present.

huài (falling) From the ceiling straight to the floor across that long glide. Because the vowel takes so long, this is a comfortable fourth tone with plenty of space to descend.

Hear it in a sentence

这个苹果坏了。

Zhège píngguǒ huài le.

This apple has gone bad.

Listen: 这个苹果坏了。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

这个苹果坏了。 places huài before the toneless le, so the fall is followed by a weightless tail at the low pitch — the sentence expires rather than stopping. Before that, zhè falls, ge is toneless, píng rises and guǒ dips. Notice that guǒ and huài are not both third tones, so no sandhi occurs between them.

Where English speakers slip

The h disappears for most learners, leaving "why", because English "h" is weak before a rounded glide and often deleted altogether. Put friction at the back of the mouth so the consonant survives. Learners also shorten the triple glide, collapsing it to "hwai" without the open middle, which thins the syllable and shortens the tone.