Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "行李箱" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 行李箱 in Chinese?

行李箱 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɕiŋ˧˥.li.ɕjɑŋ˥/. It means “suitcase.” shing-li-SHYAHNG: a rising syllable, a weak toneless one, then a high level one. Two thin x hisses bracket a neutral middle.

shing-li-SHYAHNG: a rising syllable, a weak toneless one, then a high level one. Two thin x hisses bracket a neutral middle.

行李箱 /ɕiŋ˧˥.li.ɕjɑŋ˥/

xínglixiāng

Rise, nothing, plateau. The neutral middle syllable does useful structural work: it separates xíng from xiāng so that neither can influence the other, and it gives the word its characteristic uneven rhythm. Note also that 行 is xíng here rather than the háng of 银行.

Listen: 行李箱

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Sound it out

xíng A thin palatal hiss with the lips spread with the tip down, onto an "ee" sealed at the back of the mouth by ng. The voice climbs from mid to high.

li Toneless: a bright forward l onto a short "ee". Light and quick, riding at the high pitch xíng finished on. In isolation 李 is a dipping tone; here it has none.

xiāng The thin hiss again, then a quick "ee" glide into a wide open "ah" sealed at the back. Held level at the top of the range.

Hear it in a sentence

我的行李箱很重。

Wǒ de xínglixiāng hěn zhòng.

My suitcase is heavy.

Listen: 我的行李箱很重。

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我的行李箱很重。 keeps wǒ at a full dip because de is toneless, and hěn at a full dip because zhòng falls. So the sentence has two unchanged dipping tones surrounding a three-syllable word that itself contains a neutral one — four weak or low moments in eight syllables.

Where English speakers slip

Both x hisses become English "sh" for most learners, and the neutral middle syllable gets restored to a full dipping tone. Take the tones first: rise, nothing, level. Then the nasals — xíng closes at the back and so does xiāng, but learners often front the first one to xín.