Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "红色" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 红色 in Chinese?

红色 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xʊŋ˧˥.sɤ˥˩/. It means “red.” hoong-SUH, rising then falling. The first syllable ends deep in the throat with the ng of "song" and the h is a scrape rather than a breath.

hoong-SUH, rising then falling. The first syllable ends deep in the throat with the ng of "song" and the h is a scrape rather than a breath.

红色 /xʊŋ˧˥.sɤ˥˩/

hóngsè

Rise then fall, and no tone changes. The pattern is identical to 蓝色 and 白色, which makes the colour vocabulary unusually consistent tonally: whatever the colour word does, sè always ends the compound with a hard drop. Use that predictable landing to anchor your rhythm.

Listen: 红色

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Sound it out

hóng Friction h at the soft palate, then a rounded "oo"-toward-"ung" vowel that closes with the back nasal. Everything about this syllable happens at the back of the mouth, and the pitch rises across it.

sè After all that back articulation, the tongue jumps forward to the teeth for a thin s, then retreats again for the unrounded back e. The pitch, having just climbed, now plunges — the biggest single pitch movement in the word.

Hear it in a sentence

苹果是红色的。

Píngguǒ shì hóngsè de.

The apple is red.

Listen: 苹果是红色的。

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苹果是红色的。 ends with de, a toneless particle, and that matters more than it looks. After sè falls to the bottom, de adds a short unstressed tail at the same low pitch, so the sentence dies away rather than stopping abruptly. The shì before hóngsè is another sharp fall, so you get drop, rise, drop, nothing — a genuine roller-coaster in four syllables.

Where English speakers slip

The recurring error is treating -ong as the vowel of English "long" — a wide open "ah" plus ng. Mandarin's is much more rounded and closed, nearer "oong". Learners also tend to let the rising tone start too high, so it has nowhere to go; begin around the middle of your speaking range so there is room to climb before sè drops.