Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "中文" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 中文 in Chinese?

中文 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʈʂʊŋ˥.wən˧˥/. It means “Chinese (language).” joong-WUN: a high level first syllable with the tongue curled back, then a rising second with lip-rounding.

joong-WUN: a high level first syllable with the tongue curled back, then a rising second with lip-rounding.

中文 /ʈʂʊŋ˥.wən˧˥/

Zhōngwén

It begins flat and ends climbing, with no sandhi. As with all second tones following a first, the climb has very little room, so native speakers drop slightly at the start of wén before ascending. The word also ends high, which means a following dipping tone keeps its full descent — relevant in the sentence below.

Listen: 中文

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Sound it out

Zhōng Tip up and back, no breath, onto a rounded vowel nearer "oo" than "oh", sealed by the back nasal. Held at the top of the range with the lips pursed.

wén The lips round for the glide, then a short central vowel closed with the tongue tip at the ridge. The voice climbs, though compressed because Zhōng already left the pitch high.

Hear it in a sentence

他的中文很好。

Tā de Zhōngwén hěn hǎo.

His Chinese is very good.

Listen: 他的中文很好。

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他的中文很好。 ends with hěn and hǎo adjacent, both dipping, so hěn rises. But note that wén, immediately before hěn, does not affect it at all — a rising tone cannot trigger a conversion. So the sentence has one conversion and it happens between the two syllables at the very end.

Where English speakers slip

Expect the tongue to lie flat, giving an English j, and the -ong vowel opens out to an English "ong" instead of staying pursed. On the second syllable, learners drop the lip-rounding, giving "un", and keep the pitch level because there is no obvious room to climb after a first tone. Dip slightly and then rise.