How to Pronounce '强': Chinese Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce 强 in Chinese?

强 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɕʰjɑŋ˧˥/. It means “strong.” chyahng with a strong puff of air, rising from mid to high. Palatal initial, an "ee" glide, a wide open vowel, and a back nasal.

How do you pronounce "强" in Chinese?

chyahng with a strong puff of air, rising from mid to high. Palatal initial, an "ee" glide, a wide open vowel, and a back nasal.

强 /tɕʰjɑŋ˧˥/

qiáng

Nothing bends this climb. What is worth knowing is that this character is also read qiǎng with a dipping tone in other words, meaning to force or compel — so the tone is a property of this meaning rather than of the character. Reading aloud from characters therefore requires knowing which word you are looking at.

Listen: 强

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Sound it out

q- Front of the tongue spread broadly against the hard palate, lips smiling, released with real breath. Made much further forward than the English ch of "church", and with no lip-rounding.

-iang Three positions in one beat: a quick "ee", a wide open "ah", and closure at the back of the mouth. The "ah" is the core and carries most of the syllable's length.

qiáng (rising) Pitch travels up throughout, like the tail of an English question, and finishes on the nasal. The long vowel gives the climb plenty of space.

Hear it in a sentence

这个球队很强。

Zhège qiúduì hěn qiáng.

This team is very strong.

Listen: 这个球队很强。

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这个球队很强。 keeps hěn at a full dip before the rising qiáng, since only a following third tone would push it up. Ahead of that, zhè falls, ge fades, qiú rises, and duì falls. So the sentence has two rises separated by a fall, and it ends by climbing — which is the natural shape for an adjective sentence headed by a second tone.

Where English speakers slip

The q comes out as English "ch" with rounded lips and the tongue too far back, which drifts toward the retroflex ch. Spread your lips into a smile and push the tongue forward. The -iang final loses its open middle for many learners, collapsing to "chyeng", and the back nasal drifts forward to qián — a real word meaning money, which makes the confusion practical.