Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "月亮" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 月亮 in Chinese?

月亮 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɥɛ˥˩.ljɑŋ/. It means “moon.” yweh-liang: a hard-falling first syllable built on the rounded front ü, then a weak toneless second.

yweh-liang: a hard-falling first syllable built on the rounded front ü, then a weak toneless second.

月亮 /ɥɛ˥˩.ljɑŋ/

yuèliang

A drop, then a syllable with no pitch of its own. Because yuè falls to the floor, the toneless second syllable sits at the bottom of the range — so this word occupies the low half of your voice throughout. Compare 漂亮, which has the same neutral second syllable and the same low landing.

Listen: 月亮

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Sound it out

yuè The u in this spelling is ü: tongue high and front as for "ee" while the lips round, then opening to an "eh" as the lips relax. The pitch plunges across that movement.

liang Toneless: a bright forward l, a quick "ee" glide, a wide open "ah", and closure at the back of the mouth. Light and short, sitting at the low pitch yuè finished on.

Hear it in a sentence

今晚的月亮很圆。

Jīnwǎn de yuèliang hěn yuán.

The moon is full tonight.

Listen: 今晚的月亮很圆。

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今晚的月亮很圆。 keeps hěn at a full dip before the rising yuán — no conversion, since only a dipping syllable would trigger one. Before that, jīn holds level, wǎn dips, de fades, yuè plunges, liang fades. The sentence contains two dipping tones and neither one changes.

Where English speakers slip

"Yway" with a plain w-glide is the standard failure for the first syllable — the tongue must stay forward while the lips round. On the second syllable, learners restore a full falling tone by analogy with 亮 as an independent character, and the -iang final loses its open middle so it comes out as "lyeng" rather than "lyahng".