Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "结束" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 结束 in Chinese?

结束 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕjɛ˧˥.ʂu˥˩/. It means “to end / to finish.” jyeh-SHOO: a rising first syllable with an unaspirated j, then a hard-falling second with the tongue curled back.

jyeh-SHOO: a rising first syllable with an unaspirated j, then a hard-falling second with the tongue curled back.

结束 /tɕjɛ˧˥.ʂu˥˩/

jiéshù

A climb followed by a plunge — up then down, with no sandhi. The inverted-V shape is worth practising as a single gesture, since the transition from the top of a rise straight into the top of a fall is quick and the two can blur into one long high syllable if you are not careful.

Listen: 结束

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Sound it out

jié Spread the front of the tongue against the hard palate, released with the breath held in, into a quick "ee" glide and an open "eh". The voice climbs from mid to high.

shù For the sh, the tip curls up and back, onto a tightly rounded "oo". The pitch plunges from high to low, so the word ends as decisively as an ending should.

Hear it in a sentence

电影结束了。

Diànyǐng jiéshùle.

The movie has ended.

Listen: 电影结束了。

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电影结束了。 gives diàn falling, yǐng dipping, jié rising, shù falling, le fading. Yǐng keeps its full dip because jié rises. The sentence therefore drops, sinks, climbs, drops again, and expires on a toneless particle — a complete tour of the pitch range in five syllables.

Where English speakers slip

Aspirating the j gives qié, and the vowel in jié is often reduced to "juh", losing both the glide and the open "eh". On the second syllable the retroflex flattens into an English "sh", which pulls it toward the thin x sound. And the rise-into-fall transition gets smoothed into a single high plateau.