How to Pronounce '九': Chinese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 九 in Chinese?

九 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕjoʊ˨˩˦/. It means “nine.” jyo, one beat, on a low sagging pitch. The j is unaspirated and made high against the palate, and the vowel glides more than the spelling suggests.

How do you pronounce "九" in Chinese?

jyo, one beat, on a low sagging pitch. The j is unaspirated and made high against the palate, and the vowel glides more than the spelling suggests.

九 /tɕjoʊ˨˩˦/

jiǔ

Everything here depends on the syllable that comes next. Before another third tone — jiǔ běn, for instance — it converts to a rising second. Before a first, second or fourth tone it keeps the full dip. Alone, as when giving a phone number, it gets the complete dipping contour.

Listen: 九

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Sound it out

j- Tongue blade flat against the hard palate, lips spread, released with no puff of air. Close to the j of "jeep" but produced further forward and without voicing.

-iu Written short for -iou: the sound travels from "ee" through a mid vowel to a rounded finish. That hidden middle vowel is more audible in a third tone, because the low pitch stretches the syllable out.

jiǔ (dip) Pitch falls to the bottom and lingers there before any small final rise. The extra length gives the glide room to be heard properly.

Hear it in a sentence

我九点上班。

Wǒ jiǔ diǎn shàngbān.

I start work at nine.

Listen: 我九点上班。

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我九点上班。 chains three third tones at the front: wǒ, jiǔ and diǎn. Mandarin resolves such runs by raising all but the last, so wǒ and jiǔ both rise and only diǎn stays low. Then shàngbān delivers a fall and a level tone. Getting this sentence right means accepting that two written third tones will not sound like third tones at all.

Where English speakers slip

Most beginners flatten the vowel to "joe", losing the initial "ee" glide, and simultaneously aspirate the j into a "ch", which pushes the word toward qiū. Keep the air in and start the vowel at "ee". The tone is the third problem: as with all third tones in connected speech, learners try to produce a full dip-and-rise on every occurrence when the low portion alone is usually what is wanted.