LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "兔子" in Chinese?
too-dz: a hard-falling first syllable with a strong puff of air, then a weak toneless second with no vowel at all.
tùzi
A plunge, and then a beat with nothing of its own. The 子 suffix behaves exactly as it does in 桌子, 椅子 and 叶子 — weightless, short, and taking its height from what precedes. Since tù falls to the floor, the suffix lands at the bottom of the range here.
Listen: 兔子
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
兔子的耳朵很长。
Tùzi de ěrduo hěn cháng.
The rabbit has long ears.
Listen: 兔子的耳朵很长。
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兔子的耳朵很长。 contains an r-coloured syllable: ěr, which dips, followed by the toneless duo. Then hěn keeps its full descent because cháng rises. So the sentence has two dipping tones — ěr and hěn — and neither converts, since a toneless syllable and a rising one respectively separate them from trouble.
Where English speakers slip
Without a real puff, the t gives dù. Push the air. The second syllable draws the usual "zee" or "zuh", importing vowels that do not exist — keep the tongue at the teeth and buzz. And the ěr in the example sentence is often given a full English "er" with a level pitch, when it needs both the r-colouring and the dip.