LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "帽子" in Chinese?
mao-dz: a hard-falling first syllable, then a weak toneless second with no vowel at all.
màozi
Down first, then a tail with no weight of its own. Since mào falls to the floor, the 子 suffix lands at the bottom of the range — the same outcome as in 兔子, and the opposite of what happens after a level first syllable. The suffix has no pitch of its own to defend.
Listen: 帽子
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
天冷的时候我戴帽子。
Tiān lěng de shíhou wǒ dài màozi.
I wear a hat when it's cold.
Listen: 天冷的时候我戴帽子。
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天冷的时候我戴帽子。 keeps lěng at a full dip because de is toneless, and wǒ at a full dip because dài falls. Then dài and mào both plunge before zi fades. Two unchanged dipping tones and two consecutive falls, with the falls needing separate resets rather than merging.
Where English speakers slip
"Zee" or "zuh" for the second syllable is the standard error, importing vowels that do not exist. Keep the tongue at the teeth. The long glide in mào also gets shortened, which robs the fourth tone of its space, and the vowel is often started rounded instead of opening on a wide "ah" first.