Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "你" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 你 in Chinese?

你 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ni˨˩˦/. It means “you (informal).” "nee" on a low, sagging pitch. Simple to make and easy to say wrongly, because English wants to keep it high and quick.

"nee" on a low, sagging pitch. Simple to make and easy to say wrongly, because English wants to keep it high and quick.

你 /ni˨˩˦/

nǐ

By itself there is nothing to negotiate, but 你 is the classic sandhi word: nǐ hǎo, nǐ xiǎng, nǐ zǒu all convert it to a rising tone because the next syllable is also third. Before a first, second or fourth tone it holds its low position without changing.

Listen: 你

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Sound it out

n- Identical to the English n in "knee": tongue tip on the ridge behind the upper teeth, air through the nose.

-ǐ A clean, tense "ee" with the lips spread. No glide onto it and no drift off it — Mandarin vowels stay put unless the spelling says otherwise.

the low dip The pitch drops to the bottom of your range and rests there. In isolation it lifts again at the very end, which is why the word can sound almost like a question when spoken alone.

Hear it in a sentence

你今天忙吗？

Nǐ jīntiān máng ma?

Are you busy today?

Listen: 你今天忙吗？

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你今天忙吗？ places 你 before jīn, a high flat first tone, so no sandhi applies and nǐ simply sits low. The question ends on ma, a toneless particle that carries no pitch of its own — meaning the question mark does not license an English-style rising intonation. Mandarin marks the question with the word, not with the melody.

Where English speakers slip

The habitual English error is a bright, level "nee" that lands as a first tone, which pushes the word toward a different syllable entirely. Getting it right feels almost like grumbling: start low, stay low. A second, subtler slip is adding a slight y-glide at the front, as in "knee-yuh" — the vowel is a single steady position.