Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "没关系" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 没关系 in Chinese?

没关系 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /meɪ˧˥.kwan˥.ɕi/. It means “it's okay / never mind.” may-GWAN-shi: a rising syllable, a high level one, and a weak toneless third. The last syllable uses the thin x hiss, not English "sh".

may-GWAN-shi: a rising syllable, a high level one, and a weak toneless third. The last syllable uses the thin x hiss, not English "sh".

没关系 /meɪ˧˥.kwan˥.ɕi/

méi guānxi

Rise, plateau, nothing. The final syllable has gone neutral, which is what gives the phrase its offhand, reassuring quality — restoring a full tone to xi makes it sound like a formal declaration that nothing is wrong. The reduction is part of the meaning, not just the sound.

Listen: 没关系

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Sound it out

méi The lips seal and the air routes through the nose, then a tight diphthong from "eh" to "ee". The tone lifts from mid to high across a fairly short vowel, so the climb must be brisk.

guān Unaspirated g with the lips already rounded, into a w-glide, a broad open "ah", and a front n. Held level at the top of the range through all that movement.

xi Toneless: lips spread for the thin palatal hiss with the tongue tip down, onto a short "ee". Light and quick, sitting at whatever pitch guān left behind.

Hear it in a sentence

没关系，别担心。

Méi guānxi, bié dānxīn.

It's okay, don't worry.

Listen: 没关系，别担心。

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没关系，别担心。 follows the reassurance with a prohibition, and the second half is worth listening to: bié climbs, dān holds high, xīn holds high too. So the sentence has two rises, three level syllables and one toneless one, and never once drops. That uniformly high, non-falling contour is exactly what makes it sound comforting.

Where English speakers slip

Nearly everyone reaches for English "sh" instead of the x, which pulls it toward the retroflex series. Smile, keep the tip down, aim the hiss high and forward. The other error is restoring the tone on xi. And guān often loses its rounded glide, coming out as "gahn" — the lips must purse before the vowel opens.