Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "爱" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 爱 in Chinese?

爱 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /aɪ˥˩/. It means “to love.” Like the English word "eye", said with a hard falling pitch. No consonant at all — the vowel and the drop are the entire syllable.

Like the English word "eye", said with a hard falling pitch. No consonant at all — the vowel and the drop are the entire syllable.

爱 /aɪ˥˩/

ài

A single fourth tone. Because the syllable begins with a bare vowel, it tends to run into whatever precedes it, and speakers often insert a very slight glottal separation to keep it distinct. 不爱 becomes bú ài, since the falling tone triggers the negator's change.

Listen: 爱

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Sound it out

ai A wide diphthong: open on "ah" with the jaw genuinely down, then closing toward "ee". The starting position is more open than in English "eye".

ài (falling) Pitch dives fast and finishes at the bottom across that glide. Since there is no consonant to launch the syllable, the fall has to begin the instant the vowel does, which takes some getting used to.

Hear it in a sentence

我爱你。

Wǒ ài nǐ.

I love you.

Listen: 我爱你。

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我爱你。 is three syllables spanning the full pitch range: wǒ sinks low, ài leaps to the top and plunges again, nǐ dips at the end. Wǒ keeps its full third tone because ài is falling, not dipping. The result is a sentence shaped like a V with a spike in the middle — and flattening that spike is what makes the phrase sound perfunctory.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers give it the level, drawn-out delivery of the English word "eye", which loses the tone completely. It must drop decisively. The other issue is the onset: since English does not comfortably begin words with a bare vowel, learners insert an "h" or a glottal stop that is heavier than the light separation Mandarin uses. Start the vowel cleanly and immediately.