Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "容易" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 容易 in Chinese?

容易 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɻʊŋ˧˥.i˥˩/. It means “easy.” roong-EE, climbing then dropping. The r is a retroflex buzz with unrounded lips, nothing like an English r.

roong-EE, climbing then dropping. The r is a retroflex buzz with unrounded lips, nothing like an English r.

容易 /ɻʊŋ˧˥.i˥˩/

róngyì

Climb then drop, with no tone change. What the word does affect is 不 in front of it: because yì is the syllable being negated in phrases like bù róngyì, and róng is a rising tone, the negator keeps its full falling form. Learners often convert it unnecessarily.

Listen: 容易

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Sound it out

róng Tongue tip curled up and back, buzzing rather than hissing, with the lips flat — then a rounded vowel near "oo" closed by the back nasal. The voice climbs while all that happens.

yì A y-glide onto a tense spread "ee", and the pitch collapses from the height róng reached down to the floor. The lips go from rounded to spread between the two syllables, which is a real physical contrast.

Hear it in a sentence

这个练习很容易。

Zhège liànxí hěn róngyì.

This exercise is easy.

Listen: 这个练习很容易。

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这个练习很容易。 keeps hěn at a full dip before the rising róng — no sandhi, since only a following third tone would trigger it. Ahead of that, zhè falls, ge is toneless, and liànxí gives a fall and a rise. The sentence therefore alternates constantly and never repeats a tone twice in succession.

Where English speakers slip

The r takes the most damage, produced with rounded lips and a bunched tongue as in English "wrong". Unround the lips completely and curl the tip back so the sound buzzes rather than glides. The -ong vowel is the other issue: an open English "ong" is too wide, and the lips need to stay pursed toward "oo" right up to the nasal closure.