🎨 Chinese Tones Cheat Sheet

By FlowTone — The Tone Memory Game · flowtone-app.netlify.app

The 4 Tones + Neutral

Tone	Color	Pitch Contour	Example	Meaning
Tone 1 (¯)	Red	High & Flat (55)	mā 妈	mother
Tone 2 (ˊ)	Yellow	Rising (35)	má 麻	hemp
Tone 3 (ˇ)	Green	Dip & Rise (214)	mǎ 马	horse
Tone 4 (ˋ)	Blue	Falling (51)	mà 骂	scold
Neutral	Gray	Light & Short	ma 吗	(question particle)

T1–T2
mā / má
flat vs rising

T1–T4
tāng / tàng
soup vs hot

T2–T3
má / mǎ
rising vs dip

T2–T4
bá / bà
pull vs dad

T3–T4
mǎ / mà
horse vs scold

T1–T3
bāo / bǎo
bag vs full

Exaggerate at first — over-pronounce tones when learning. You'll naturally soften later.
Use color — your brain remembers colors better than diacritics (ā á ǎ à).
Practice tone pairs, not just single syllables — most of your confusion will come from transitions.
5 minutes every day beats 2 hours once a week. Tones are muscle memory.

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