Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "完" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 完 in Chinese?

完 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /wan˧˥/. It means “to finish / to be done.” wahn, rising from mid to high. Identical in sound to 玩 — same lip-rounding, same open vowel, same climb.

wahn, rising from mid to high. Identical in sound to 玩 — same lip-rounding, same open vowel, same climb.

完 /wan˧˥/

wán

The climb never shifts. In its most common role as a resultative complement — chī wán, kàn wán, zuò wán — it attaches to a preceding verb and keeps its rising tone, though it is often spoken quickly. That rise is what distinguishes the completed action from a plain verb.

Listen: 完

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Sound it out

w- Lips round briefly before the vowel, then relax. The rounding belongs to the glide only and should not colour the vowel that follows.

-an An open, unrounded "ah" with the jaw down closed with the tongue tip at the ridge. Because a rounded glide precedes it, keeping the vowel unrounded takes conscious effort.

wán (rising) A steady climb from mid to high, completed by the time the nasal closes. The nasal gives the rise a comfortable landing point.

Hear it in a sentence

我吃完了。

Wǒ chī wán le.

I have finished eating.

Listen: 我吃完了。

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我吃完了。 gives four distinct pitch states in three and a bit syllables: wǒ dips, chī holds high, wán climbs, le fades. Wǒ keeps its full dip because chī is a first tone. And le, being toneless, sits at whatever height wán reached — which is high, so the sentence ends up rather than down despite being a completed statement.

Where English speakers slip

The rise gets swallowed because the syllable functions as a suffix and feels unimportant, which leaves a level wan that reads as a first tone. Keep the climb. The vowel is the other issue: English speakers produce "won" with a back rounded quality carried over from the glide, when the mouth should open and unround as soon as the w is done.