LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "毛巾" in Chinese?
mao-JEEN: a rising first syllable, then a high level second with an unaspirated j and a front n.
máojīn
A climb onto a plateau, with no sandhi. Because máo already ends high, the level jīn has nowhere to go but stay — which is easier than the reverse order, where a rising tone after a level one has to squeeze its climb into the top of the range.
Listen: 毛巾
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
毛巾挂在门后面。
Máojīn guà zài mén hòumiàn.
The towel is hanging behind the door.
Listen: 毛巾挂在门后面。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
毛巾挂在门后面。 gives máo rising, jīn level, guà falling, zài falling, mén rising, hòu falling, miàn falling. Four descents and two climbs, with two pairs of consecutive falls that each need separate resets. The sentence never dips at all — there is not a single third tone in it.
Where English speakers slip
An audible puff on the j produces gives qīn. Keep the breath in. The front nasal on jīn drifts back to jīng, which is a common syllable. And the rise on máo is often flattened, which gives māo — the word for cat, so a towel becomes an animal and the sentence stops making sense.