Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "山" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 山 in Chinese?

山 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʂan˥/. It means “mountain.” shahn with the tongue curled back, held high and flat. A broad open vowel and a front n.

shahn with the tongue curled back, held high and flat. A broad open vowel and a front n.

山 /ʂan˥/

shān

This syllable sits outside the tone rules entirely, and it disturbs nothing either. Its useful contrast is with 三 sān, which shares the vowel, the nasal and the tone and differs only in the tongue position of the initial — retroflex versus a plain alveolar hiss. That single feature is doing all the work.

Listen: 山

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Sound it out

sh- Retroflex: the tip curls up and back toward the front of the hard palate, hollowing the hiss in a way English "sh" never does.

-an An open, jaw-down "ah" as in "father", closed with the tongue tip at the ridge. The tip has to travel all the way down from its curled position and then forward again.

shān (level) Steady, high, unwavering through the vowel and the nasal. Nasal endings are where the pitch most often sags, so hold it right through the closure.

Hear it in a sentence

我们喜欢爬山。

Wǒmen xǐhuan pá shān.

We love hiking in the mountains.

Listen: 我们喜欢爬山。

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我们喜欢爬山。 protects wǒ with the toneless men, so it keeps its dip and no conversion occurs even though xǐ follows. Then huan fades, pá climbs, and shān holds level at the end. The sentence therefore ends on a plateau, which English speakers instinctively resolve downward.

Where English speakers slip

A flat-tongued English "sh" is tongue is the standard substitution, which pulls this toward the thin x sound. Curl the tip back until it feels hollow. The nasal drifts back to shāng, which is a real word, and the vowel tightens toward English "shan" when the jaw should drop. And the level tone taper is the usual final-position hazard.