LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "可是" in Chinese?
kuh-SHRR: a low sagging first syllable with a strong puff of air, then a hard-falling second with no real vowel.
kěshì
A sag followed by a drop, and no conversion — the rule requires the second syllable to dip too. That makes this a clean contrast with 可以, where the identical first syllable does rise. Same character, opposite behaviour, decided entirely by what comes second, and both words appear constantly.
Listen: 可是
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我喜欢，可是太贵了。
Wǒ xǐhuan, kěshì tài guì le.
I like it, but it's too expensive.
Listen: 我喜欢，可是太贵了。
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我喜欢，可是太贵了。 opens with wǒ and xǐ adjacent, both dipping, so wǒ rises. After the comma kě keeps its dip because shì falls, then tài and guì both plunge and le fades. Two consecutive falls in the second clause need separate resets — running them together makes the complaint sound like one long sigh.
Where English speakers slip
The second syllable becomes "she" for most learners, importing a vowel that does not exist. Curl and buzz. Under-aspirating the k gives gě, and the vowel in kě fronts to "eh" when the tongue should retract. And learners who have just drilled kěyǐ often apply the conversion here too, producing ké shì, which is wrong.