Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "几" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 几 in Chinese?

几 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕi˨˩˦/. It means “how many / a few.” jee, low and sagging. Unaspirated palatal j onto a tense "ee", with the pitch sinking to the bottom.

jee, low and sagging. Unaspirated palatal j onto a tense "ee", with the pitch sinking to the bottom.

几 /tɕi˨˩˦/

jǐ

As a question word it almost always precedes a measure word, and many measure words are third tone — jǐ běn, jǐ bǎ, jǐ diǎn — in which case 几 converts to a rising tone. Before ge, which is spoken toneless, it keeps its full dip. So the same question word alternates constantly depending on what is being counted.

Listen: 几

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Sound it out

j- That flat front portion of the tongue spreads against the hard palate, lips slightly spread, released with no puff of air. Similar to English j but flatter, further forward and unvoiced.

-ǐ A tense, spread "ee" with no drift onto or off it. The tongue is high and front and stays there.

the dip Settles at the bottom and rests. Short syllable, so the low pitch has to arrive at once rather than being approached gradually.

Hear it in a sentence

你要几个？

Nǐ yào jǐ ge?

How many do you want?

Listen: 你要几个？

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你要几个？ keeps jǐ at a full dip, because ge is toneless and offers nothing to trigger a change. Nǐ also keeps its dip, since yào falls. The question therefore has two unchanged third tones and ends on a weightless syllable, so it finishes at the bottom of the range with no rise at all despite the question mark.

Where English speakers slip

Let breath escape on the j and you have qǐ, a different word. Keep the breath in. The bigger issue is the alternation described above: learners produce a full dip everywhere, so jǐ diǎn comes out as two laboured low syllables instead of a rise and a dip. Since asking the time is one of the first things anyone learns, this particular miss is very audible.