LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "蓝色" in Chinese?
lahn-SUH. The first syllable is an open "ah" closed with a front n, rising in pitch; the second falls away sharply.
lánsè
No sandhi — a second tone followed by a fourth, both stable. The one rhythmic point worth making is that the rise on lán must finish before sè begins, otherwise the two syllables merge into a single vague hump. Mandarin tones need clean boundaries, and this word is a good place to practise that separation.
Listen: 蓝色
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
天空是蓝色的。
Tiānkōng shì lánsè de.
The sky is blue.
Listen: 天空是蓝色的。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
天空是蓝色的。 gives two level high syllables at the start, tiānkōng, then a fall on shì, then the rise-fall of lánsè, then the toneless de. The contrast between the flat plateau at the start and the sharp movements in the middle is the sentence's whole character, and flattening lánsè will make the second half sound like a continuation of the first.
Where English speakers slip
There is a near-neighbour lying in wait: 难 nán, which differs only in its initial consonant. English speakers with a light touch on the l — or who nasalise it in anticipation of the final n — can drift toward nán without noticing. Keep the tongue tip firmly on the ridge and the air flowing over the sides for the l. The vowel also tends to come out as the flat a of "lamb"; open it toward "father".