Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "左边" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 左边 in Chinese?

左边 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tswo˨˩˦.pjɛn/. It means “left / on the left.” dzwor-byen: a low sagging first syllable with a "ds" onset, then a weak toneless second closer to "byen" than "bee-an".

dzwor-byen: a low sagging first syllable with a "ds" onset, then a weak toneless second closer to "byen" than "bee-an".

左边 /tswo˨˩˦.pjɛn/

zuǒbian

The suffix has gone neutral, which has a structural payoff: because bian carries no tone, zuǒ is never adjacent to a following third tone and so keeps its full dip in phrases where a bare zuǒ would have converted. Location words built this way are tonally more stable than their bare roots.

Listen: 左边

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Sound it out

zuǒ Contact at the teeth ridge, then a hiss with no breath, then a rounded glide from "oo" out toward "aw". The voice sinks to the floor across it.

bian Given a first tone in dictionaries but spoken toneless as a location suffix. The -ian final is closer to "yen" than "yahn", ending with the tongue tip at the ridge, and the whole syllable is short and light.

Hear it in a sentence

洗手间在左边。

Xǐshǒujiān zài zuǒbian.

The restroom is on the left.

Listen: 洗手间在左边。

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洗手间在左边。 opens with a three-syllable sandhi problem: xǐ and shǒu are adjacent third tones, so xǐ rises, giving xí shǒu jiān. Then zài falls and zuǒ keeps its dip before the toneless bian. Two of the sentence's three third tones behave differently, and neither behaviour is marked in the pinyin.

Where English speakers slip

Restoring a full tone to bian is the standard error, producing zuǒ biān with two heavy beats — it should be a light suffix. The -ian final also opens out to "byahn" for most learners when it should be a tight "eh". And the z is read as an English z, losing the stop closure that gives the syllable its crispness.