Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "有空" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 有空 in Chinese?

有空 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /joʊ˨˩˦.kʰʊŋ˥˩/. It means “to be free / have time.” yo-KOONG: a low sagging first syllable, then a strongly aspirated second that drops from high to low.

yo-KOONG: a low sagging first syllable, then a strongly aspirated second that drops from high to low.

有空 /joʊ˨˩˦.kʰʊŋ˥˩/

yǒukòng

Dip then plunge, with no sandhi — the rule fires only when two dipping tones meet, and kòng falls. That means yǒu keeps its full low contour here, unlike in yǒu shuǐ or yǒu mǎ where it would be pushed upward. The same verb behaves differently depending on the noun after it.

Listen: 有空

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Sound it out

yǒu A y-glide onto a vowel that starts fairly unrounded and closes toward "oo", with the voice sagging low and staying there.

kòng Release comes at the soft palate with a real gust of breath, into a rounded vowel near "oo" sealed by the back nasal. The pitch dives from high to low, so the word swings from its floor to its ceiling and back down.

Hear it in a sentence

你今晚有空吗？

Nǐ jīnwǎn yǒukòng ma?

Are you free tonight?

Listen: 你今晚有空吗？

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你今晚有空吗？ keeps nǐ at a full dip before the level jīn, and yǒu at a full dip before the falling kòng — two unchanged third tones in one question. The toneless ma at the end sits at the low pitch kòng finished on, so the question ends at the bottom of the range with no rise at all.

Where English speakers slip

The aspiration on k is often lost, giving gòng, and English speakers reduce aspiration in the second syllable of a word almost automatically. Push the air out. The vowel is the other issue: an open "kong" as in English is too wide, and the lips must stay pursed. Learners also mistakenly apply sandhi to yǒu, producing a rise where a full dip belongs.