How to Pronounce '很': Chinese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 很 in Chinese?

很 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /xən˨˩˦/. It means “very.” hun, low and sagging, with a scraped h and a short central vowel. The single most sandhi-prone word in beginner Mandarin.

How do you pronounce "很" in Chinese?

hun, low and sagging, with a scraped h and a short central vowel. The single most sandhi-prone word in beginner Mandarin.

很 /xən˨˩˦/

hěn

No word in the beginner vocabulary gets converted more often than this one. 很 introduces almost every adjective in Mandarin, and a large proportion of common adjectives are themselves third tone — hǎo, lěng, duǎn, shǎo, ǎi, hǎochī. In every one of those, hěn rises to a second tone. Before a first, second or fourth tone adjective it keeps the dip.

Listen: 很

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Sound it out

h- The air rasps past the soft palate rather than an open English breath. The rasp is easy to lose on such a short, unstressed-feeling word.

-en A short central vowel, close to the one in English "taken", closed with the tongue tip at the ridge.

hěn (dip) The pitch settles at the bottom and rests. But this is the citation form, and in real sentences it very often does not survive — see the note below.

Hear it in a sentence

很高兴认识你。

Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ.

Very nice to meet you.

Listen: 很高兴认识你。

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很高兴认识你。 is a case where it does not convert: gāo is a level tone, so hěn keeps its full descent. Compare hěn hǎo, where it does. Having the same word behave both ways in phrases you use daily is exactly why the rule has to become automatic rather than calculated — you do not have time to work it out mid-sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Two opposite errors. Beginners either never convert it, producing a heavy double-dip in hěn hǎo, or they convert it everywhere, saying hén gāoxìng when it should stay low. The test is always the tone of the adjective immediately after. Separately, the h often loses its friction entirely and the word reduces to "un", because it feels like a small unimportant adverb — but it carries a full tone and deserves a full syllable.