Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "一样" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 一样 in Chinese?

一样 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /i˧˥.jɑŋ˥˩/. It means “same / alike.” ee-YAHNG, rising then falling. The 一 here is a rising tone, not the high flat one you learned first.

ee-YAHNG, rising then falling. The 一 here is a rising tone, not the high flat one you learned first.

一样 /i˧˥.jɑŋ˥˩/

yíyàng

This word exists to demonstrate the 一 rule. Since yàng is a fourth tone, the number in front converts from its plain high level form to a rising second tone: yī becomes yí. The pinyin here already reflects the change, which is helpful, but the character on the page never does — so in reading you must work it out yourself.

Listen: 一样

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Sound it out

yí A bare "ee" with a y for spelling purposes, and the voice ramps upward across it. That rise is a converted tone, not the word's dictionary form.

yàng A y-glide into a wide open "ah" sealed at the back of the mouth by ng, with the pitch plunging from high to low. The vowel is long, so the fall is fully audible.

Hear it in a sentence

我们的问题一样。

Wǒmen de wèntí yíyàng.

We have the same problem.

Listen: 我们的问题一样。

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我们的问题一样。 gives three toneless or falling syllables before the word arrives: wǒ dips, men fades, de fades, wèn falls, tí rises. Then yí rises again and yàng falls. Two consecutive rises, on tí and yí, is a slightly unusual sequence and a good test of whether your second tone really climbs each time rather than settling into a plateau.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners say yī yàng with a flat first syllable, because that is the tone they memorised for 一. The conversion is automatic for natives and its absence is instantly noticeable. The other error is the -iang final: shortened to "yeng" it loses the open "ah" in the middle, which is the longest part of the syllable and where the fall mostly happens.