Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "忘记" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 忘记 in Chinese?

忘记 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /wɑŋ˥˩.tɕi˥˩/. It means “to forget.” wahng-JEE, both syllables dropping hard. The first ends with a back nasal and the second with a tight "ee".

wahng-JEE, both syllables dropping hard. The first ends with a back nasal and the second with a tight "ee".

忘记 /wɑŋ˥˩.tɕi˥˩/

wàngjì

Both syllables plunge, and no rule intervenes. As usual the first is compressed: wàng drops but not all the way, and jì takes the fuller descent. Making them equal produces two hammer-blows, which is the single most common rhythmic error with double-fourth-tone words.

Listen: 忘记

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Sound it out

wàng Lips round for the glide, then a wide open "ah" that must unround, closed at the back of the mouth by ng. The pitch drops steeply across the whole syllable.

jì Unaspirated palatal j onto a tense spread "ee" — the lips go from rounded in the first syllable to spread in the second, which is a real physical contrast worth feeling.

Hear it in a sentence

我忘记带钱包了。

Wǒ wàngjì dài qiánbāo le.

I forgot to bring my wallet.

Listen: 我忘记带钱包了。

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

我忘记带钱包了。 continues the falling run into dài, giving three consecutive fourth tones before qiánbāo climbs and levels and le fades away. That triple fall is where English rhythm interferes most, wanting to merge them into one long descent. Each has to restart near the top, so the sentence should sound like three separate drops.

Where English speakers slip

The first syllable is where the trouble is: learners keep the lips rounded through the vowel, giving "wong", and often let the nasal drift forward to wàn. Round for the glide, then open and unround for the "ah", then close at the back. On the tone side, the compression of the first fourth tone is not optional — evening the two out is what makes the word sound stamped out rather than spoken.