Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "这样" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 这样 in Chinese?

这样 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʈʂɤ˥˩.jɑŋ˥˩/. It means “like this / so.” juh-YAHNG, both syllables dropping hard. A retroflex initial with a retracted vowel, then a y-glide into a wide open one.

juh-YAHNG, both syllables dropping hard. A retroflex initial with a retracted vowel, then a y-glide into a wide open one.

这样 /ʈʂɤ˥˩.jɑŋ˥˩/

zhèyàng

Two falling tones with the first compressed and the second fuller. It is worth putting alongside 一样 yíyàng: the same second syllable, but there the first is a converted 一 that rises. So the two words have opposite openings and identical endings, which is a neat way to feel the difference between a rise and a fall.

Listen: 这样

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Sound it out

zhè Tongue curled back, and the release, no breath — onto Mandarin's back unrounded e with the lips completely flat. The pitch dives fast.

yàng A y-glide into a wide open "ah" sealed at the back by ng. Another full descent, and because this vowel is long, the fall here is the more audible of the two.

Hear it in a sentence

别这样做。

Bié zhèyàng zuò.

Don't do it like this.

Listen: 别这样做。

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别这样做。 opens with bié climbing, then delivers three consecutive falls — zhè, yàng and zuò. That triple descent is the sentence's whole difficulty: each one must reset to the top before dropping, and English rhythm wants to run them together into a single slide down from the initial rise.

Where English speakers slip

The tongue lies flat, giving an English j, and the vowel comes out as "eh" instead of retracting, giving "jeh". Curl the tongue and pull the vowel back. On the tone side, prohibitions in English fall gently across the whole phrase, so learners produce one long descent rather than three separate drops — which makes the command sound resigned instead of firm.