What Are the 4 Mandarin Tones? A Complete Visual Guide
If you've just started learning Mandarin, you've probably heard that it's a tonal language. That means the pitch of your voice changes the meaning of a word. In English, saying "dog" with a rising or falling pitch still means "dog." In Mandarin, mā, má, mǎ, and mà are four completely different words.
This guide explains each of the 4 tones (plus the neutral tone) with visual pitch contours, color codes, audio descriptions, and plenty of examples. By the end, you'll understand not just what the tones are, but why they work the way they do — and how to start hearing the difference.
The 4 Tones — At a Glance
| # | Tone Name | Pitch | Diacritic | Color | Example (mā) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | High & Flat | 55 (high, steady) | ¯ | ● Red | 妈 (mother) |
| 2 | Rising | 35 (mid → high) | ˊ | ● Yellow | 麻 (hemp) |
| 3 | Dip & Rise | 214 (low → high) | ˇ | ● Green | 马 (horse) |
| 4 | Falling | 51 (high → low) | ˋ | ● Blue | 骂 (scold) |
| 5 | Neutral | Light & short | (none) | ○ Gray | 吗 (question) |
Each Tone — In Detail
Tone 1 — High & Flat (¯)
Pitch contour: Starts high and stays high — like holding a single musical note. Think of a singer holding one pitch, or a doctor asking you to say "ahhh."
How it feels: Steady, calm, sustained. Your voice shouldn't move up or down at all.
Examples: mā 妈 (mother) · tā 他 (he) · gāo 高 (tall) · jīn tiān 今天 (today)
Tone 2 — Rising (ˊ)
Pitch contour: Starts at mid-range and rises to high — like the way your voice goes up when you ask a question in English ("Really?").
How it feels: Inquisitive, questioning, climbing. Your voice starts at your normal speaking pitch and slides upward.
Examples: má 麻 (hemp) · rén 人 (person) · nián 年 (year) · huí lái 回来 (return)
Tone 3 — Dip & Rise (ˇ)
Pitch contour: Starts mid, dips low, then rises — like your voice when you're thinking and say "w-e-l-l..." Most learners find this the hardest tone.
How it feels: Creaky at the bottom (your vocal cords almost close), then climbing back up. In isolation, it's the longest tone. In normal speech, it often stays low without rising back up (the "half third tone").
Examples: mǎ 马 (horse) · hǎo 好 (good) · wǒ 我 (I) · nǐ hǎo 你好 (hello)
Tone 4 — Falling (ˋ)
Pitch contour: Starts high and drops sharply — like giving a command in English ("Stop!"). The shortest, most forceful tone.
How it feels: Decisive, abrupt, emphatic. Your voice drops like you're hammering a point home.
Examples: mà 骂 (scold) · dà 大 (big) · bù 不 (not) · zài jiàn 再见 (goodbye)
The Neutral Tone — When Tones Disappear
Some syllables in Mandarin carry no tone at all — they're light, short, and unstressed. The neutral tone appears in:
- Particles: 吗 (ma), 了 (le), 的 (de)
- Second syllables of some words: 妈妈 (māma — "mom"), 朋友 (péngyou — "friend")
- Reduplicated verbs/adjectives: 看看 (kànkan — "take a look"), 慢慢 (mànman — "slowly")
The pitch of a neutral tone depends on the tone before it — it's higher after tone 3, lower after tone 4, and mid after tones 1 and 2.
Tone Sandhi — When Tones Change in Context
Just when you think you've got the 4 tones down, Mandarin throws a curveball: tone sandhi. Tones change when placed next to each other. These aren't optional — they're how native speakers actually speak.
Rule 1: Two Third Tones → Second + Third
The most famous sandhi rule. When two 3rd tones appear together, the first becomes a 2nd tone:
| Written | Pronounced | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| nǐ (3) + hǎo (3) | ní (2) + hǎo (3) | hello |
| hěn (3) + hǎo (3) | hén (2) + hǎo (3) | very good |
Rule 2: 不 (bù) Before 4th Tone → bú
| Written | Pronounced | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bù (4) + duì (4) | bú (2) + duì (4) | incorrect |
Rule 3: 一 (yī) Changes Depending on What Follows
| Written | Pronounced | Context |
|---|---|---|
| yī (1) + gè (4) | yí (2) + gè (4) | 一 + 4th tone → 2nd |
| yī (1) + tiān (1) | yì (4) + tiān (1) | 一 + non-4th → 4th |
Why Color-Coding Helps
Research on cross-modal perception shows that pairing a sound with a color creates stronger, more durable memories than sound alone. Your visual cortex — which is massive compared to your auditory processing — gets recruited to help encode pitch information.
This is why FlowTone uses a fixed color palette (red=T1, yellow=T2, green=T3, blue=T4) as a core mechanic, not decoration. After a few weeks of consistent practice, learners report that they start mentally "seeing" tones as colors — a phenomenon called synesthetic learning.
🎧 Want to practice what you just learned?
FlowTone turns tone practice into a daily game. Listen to native sentences, reproduce tones by swiping, and build muscle memory with haptic feedback. HSK 1 is free forever.
Download FlowTone — Free