Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "鱼" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 鱼 in Chinese?

鱼 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /y˧˥/. It means “fish.” ü, climbing from mid to high — the rounded front vowel, not a plain "oo". Same vowel as 雨, opposite pitch direction.

ü, climbing from mid to high — the rounded front vowel, not a plain "oo". Same vowel as 雨, opposite pitch direction.

鱼 /y˧˥/

yú

The ascent is stable in every environment. What matters more is the vowel: 鱼 yú and 雨 yǔ differ only in pitch direction, and both are common words that can appear in the same kinds of sentences — one about fish, one about rain — so the tone genuinely disambiguates.

Listen: 鱼

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Sound it out

y- Written only because a syllable cannot begin with a bare ü. There is no separate consonant to produce.

-ú (= ü) Tongue high and forward as for "ee", lips pushed into a tight circle, both held at once. This is the vowel of French "lune", and English has no equivalent.

yú (rising) The tone lifts from mid to high on a short, tight vowel. Very little room, so the climb has to be quick and unmistakable.

Hear it in a sentence

鱼在海里游。

Yú zài hǎi lǐ yóu.

The fish swims in the sea.

Listen: 鱼在海里游。

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鱼在海里游。 has hǎi and lǐ adjacent, both dipping, so hǎi rises: yú zài hái lǐ yóu. The sentence therefore climbs, drops, climbs on the converted hái, sinks on lǐ, and climbs again on yóu. Three rises in five syllables, each needing its own downward reset.

Where English speakers slip

"Yoo" is the standard rendering and it uses a vowel that is not in the syllable. Keep the tongue forward while the lips round. The rise is the other issue: on such a short tight vowel it is easy to skip, and a level yu drifts toward yū. And the hǎi lǐ conversion in the middle of the sentence is regularly missed.