LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "晚" in Chinese?
wahn, low and sagging. Lip-rounding to start, then a broad open vowel and a front n.
wǎn
It dips unless another dipping syllable follows. Compare 玩 wán and 完 wán, both rising with identical segments — so this syllable exists in the language with at least three tones attached to different meanings, and the pitch is the only thing sorting them out.
Listen: 晚
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我来晚了。
Wǒ lái wǎn le.
I arrived late.
Listen: 我来晚了。
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
我来晚了。 keeps wǒ at a full dip because lái rises, then lái climbs, wǎn dips, and le fades toneless at that low pitch. The sentence therefore sinks, climbs, sinks again and expires. Two third tones separated by a rising syllable means no sandhi anywhere, which learners sometimes force anyway out of habit.
Where English speakers slip
The vowel darkens toward "won" for most learners, because the preceding w-glide pulls it backward. Round for the glide, then open and unround. The tone is the other issue: a rising delivery gives wán, which is a common word meaning to play or to finish, so a half-hearted dip genuinely changes the sentence rather than just sounding foreign.