Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "妹妹" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 妹妹 in Chinese?

妹妹 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /meɪ˥˩.meɪ/. It means “younger sister.” MAY-may: a hard-falling first syllable, then a weak toneless echo sitting low.

MAY-may: a hard-falling first syllable, then a weak toneless echo sitting low.

妹妹 /meɪ˥˩.meɪ/

mèimei

Kinship reduplication with neutralisation. Since mèi falls to the floor, the toneless echo lands at the bottom, giving the word the same low profile as 爸爸 and the opposite of 妈妈. The whole set follows one rule with four different outcomes depending on the first syllable's tone.

Listen: 妹妹

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Sound it out

mèi Lips together, air out through the nose, then a tight diphthong from "eh" to "ee". The pitch collapses from high to low across a fairly short vowel, so the descent has to be brisk.

mei The same syllable with its tone removed, shorter and quieter, sitting at the low pitch mèi finished on. Compare 没 méi, which has identical segments and a rising tone — this word contains that syllable twice, and neither instance rises.

Hear it in a sentence

我妹妹在睡觉。

Wǒ mèimei zài shuìjiào.

My little sister is sleeping.

Listen: 我妹妹在睡觉。

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我妹妹在睡觉。 keeps wǒ at a full dip because mèi falls. Then mei fades low, zài plunges, and shuìjiào gives two more falls. That makes four descending syllables in a six-syllable sentence, each needing its own reset — the commonest failure is letting them cascade into one long slide toward the floor.

Where English speakers slip

Giving the second syllable a full falling tone produces mèimèi, which sounds hammered. Let it go slack. The other risk is the vowel: English "may" is longer and more drawled than the Mandarin diphthong, and stretching it out leaves the fourth tone too gradual. Keep it compact and let the pitch drop decisively.