LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "钱" in Chinese?
chyen, rising from mid to high, with a strong puff of air. One beat, and the vowel is a tight "eh" rather than an open "ah".
qián
The ascent is stable. It contrasts directly with 前 qián in 前面, a true homophone, and with 浅 qiǎn and 欠 qiàn, which differ only in pitch. Given how often money comes up in transactions, an unclear tone here is a practical problem rather than a cosmetic one.
Listen: 钱
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我的钱不够。
Wǒ de qián bú gòu.
I don't have enough money.
Listen: 我的钱不够。
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我的钱不够。 keeps 不 in its converted rising form, bú, because gòu is a falling tone. Wǒ keeps its dip since de is toneless. So the sentence runs dip, nothing, rise, rise, fall — with two consecutive rises on qián and bú that need separate downward resets.
Where English speakers slip
Too little breath on the q gives jián. Push the air. The -ian final opens out to "chyahn" for most learners when it should stay tight. And in the example sentence, learners who have not internalised the 不 rule produce bù gòu, which is wrong — the following gòu falls, so the negator must rise.