Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "火车站" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 火车站 in Chinese?

火车站 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xwo˨˩˦.ʈʂʰɤ˥.ʈʂan˥˩/. It means “train station.” hwor-CHUH-JAHN: a low sag, a high plateau, then a hard fall. Down, up, down.

hwor-CHUH-JAHN: a low sag, a high plateau, then a hard fall. Down, up, down.

火车站 /xwo˨˩˦.ʈʂʰɤ˥.ʈʂan˥˩/

huǒchēzhàn

Sag, plateau, plunge, with no sandhi. The second and third syllables form an aspiration pair — same retroflex position, one with breath and one without — sitting directly next to each other, which makes the contrast unusually exposed and unusually easy to check.

Listen: 火车站

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Sound it out

huǒ Audible rasp at the soft palate, immediate lip-rounding, then a glide from "oo" out toward "aw". The voice sinks to the floor.

chē A retroflex release with a puff behind it: curled tip, hollow release, a gust of breath — onto the back unrounded e with the lips flat. Held level at the top.

zhàn Retroflex again but with no aspiration, onto a broad open "ah" closed with a front n. The pitch plunges from the plateau to the floor.

Hear it in a sentence

火车站离这里很近。

Huǒchēzhàn lí zhèlǐ hěn jìn.

The train station is nearby.

Listen: 火车站离这里很近。

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火车站离这里很近。 has lǐ and hěn adjacent, both dipping, so lǐ rises: zhè lí hěn jìn. Huǒ keeps its own dip because chē is level. So the sentence contains three dipping tones and only one converts, with the conversion sitting between a location word and an adverb.

Where English speakers slip

Aspiration is the thing that slips: between chē and zhàn collapses for most learners, which makes the second half of the word indistinct. Feel the air for one and not the other. The h in huǒ also disappears before the rounded glide, and the zhèlǐ hěn conversion in the sentence is the usual casualty.