LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "进" in Chinese?
jean with no puff of air and a hard falling pitch. The j is made forward against the hard palate and the ending is a front n.
jìn
The drop is not negotiable and no rule touches it. It regularly appears with directional complements — jìnlái, jìnqù — where the second syllable is often reduced toward a neutral tone, so the compound tends to sound like a strong fall followed by something much lighter.
Listen: 进
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
外面冷，请进来。
Wàimiàn lěng, qǐng jìnlái.
It's cold outside, please come in.
Listen: 外面冷，请进来。
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外面冷，请进来。 gives a fall, a fall, a dip, then after the comma a dip and a fall. Qǐng keeps its full third tone because jìn is falling, not dipping. And lái at the end climbs, so the invitation finishes on a rise — a genuinely warmer contour than the falling first clause, which suits the meaning.
Where English speakers slip
Let the j escape with breath and it becomes qìn, and English speakers aspirate almost reflexively. Hold the breath back. The nasal is the other issue: jìng with a back nasal is a real and common syllable, so the merger produces actual confusion rather than just an accent. Keep the tongue tip forward and let it touch the ridge.