LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "晚安" in Chinese?
wahn-AHN: a low sagging first syllable, then a high level second that is a bare vowel. The apostrophe in the pinyin marks the syllable break.
wǎn'ān
Dip then plateau, with no rule firing — ān is level, so wǎn keeps its full descent. The pitch interval is the notable thing: the first syllable is at the floor and the second at the ceiling, so the greeting leaps upward across two syllables that share the same vowel and the same nasal ending.
Listen: 晚安
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
晚安，明天见！
Wǎn'ān, míngtiān jiàn!
Good night, see you tomorrow!
Listen: 晚安，明天见！
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晚安，明天见！ pairs it with a farewell, and the second half moves the other way: míng climbs, tiān holds high, jiàn plunges. So the whole utterance goes down, up, up, along, down — and the two halves have opposite trajectories, which is what stops it sounding monotonous.
Where English speakers slip
The vowel in wǎn darkens toward "won" because the w-glide pulls it backward; open and unround it after the glide. On the second syllable, English speakers insert a glottal stop or an "h" at the front, since we are uncomfortable beginning a syllable with a bare vowel — the transition should be smooth. And the pitch leap between the two is routinely flattened.