Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "儿子" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 儿子 in Chinese?

儿子 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɑɻ˧˥.tsz̩/. It means “son.” arr-dz: a rising first syllable that is an r-coloured vowel, then a weak toneless second with no real vowel at all.

arr-dz: a rising first syllable that is an r-coloured vowel, then a weak toneless second with no real vowel at all.

儿子 /ɑɻ˧˥.tsz̩/

érzi

One toned syllable and one without. This is one of very few Mandarin syllables where r-colouring is genuinely part of the vowel rather than a suffix, and it carries a full rising tone here. Contrast the r in 一点儿, where the colouring is an added suffix that deletes a nasal and carries no tone of its own.

Listen: 儿子

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Sound it out

ér A single unit rather than a vowel plus a consonant: the tongue bunches or curls while an open central vowel is sounding, colouring the whole thing. The voice climbs from mid to high across it.

zi Toneless, and the i is a decoy — the tongue tip stays at the teeth where the "ds" release left it and buzzes. No "ee", no schwa, just a short voiced continuation of the consonant.

Hear it in a sentence

他有一个小儿子。

Tā yǒu yí ge xiǎo érzi.

He has a young son.

Listen: 他有一个小儿子。

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他有一个小儿子。 contains the 一 conversion: yí before the underlyingly-falling ge. Then xiǎo keeps its full dip because ér rises, not dips. Earlier, tā holds high and yǒu dips. So the sentence has two unchanged dipping tones and one converted 一, and the conversion is the only thing that has moved.

Where English speakers slip

That second syllable comes out as "zee" or "zuh" for most learners — both import vowels that are not there. Keep the tongue at the teeth and let it buzz. On the first syllable, learners either suppress the r-colouring entirely, having been warned off English r, or make it a full English "er" with a level pitch. It needs both the colouring and the climb.