I can tell the three sets of hissing sounds apart by ear and in writing, read i after them as a continuation of the consonant, recognize ü behind the letter u after j, q, x, and understand what older English spellings of Chinese names hide.
Three sets: flat, curled, soft
Three sets: flat, curled, soft
English has s and sh; Chinese has three sets, and they tell words apart: sì (四) “four” and shì (是) “to be” are different words.
Flat z c s (the tongue tip at the back of the upper front teeth): z is [ts] with no puff of air, like the ts of “cats”, never the z of “zoo”; c is [tsʰ], the same with a strong puff; s is [s], like English s.
Curled zh ch sh r (retroflex: the tongue tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth): zh has no puff, ch has a strong puff, sh is like the sh of “shirt” with the tongue curled back; r is close to English r, with the tongue tip curled further and the lips not rounded: 人 rén.
Soft j q x (palatal: the tongue tip down behind the lower teeth, the middle of the tongue raised); before i the lips are spread (jī), before ü rounded (qù). x is between s and sh. They come only before i and ü: 去 qù, 谢谢 xièxie.
The puff of air from lesson 2 works here too: c, ch, q have a puff; z, zh, j don't.
Common mistakes:
• NOT the k of “queen” for q — q is soft, with a puff of air.
• NOT the z of “zoo” for r — the tongue curls, no hiss.
• NOT ks or z for x — x is soft (the tongue tip down).
• NOT a flat s in sh — in shì the tongue is curled.
Three sets of hissing sounds
| Set | No puff of air | With a puff of air | Hiss (and r) | Where the tongue is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| flat | z [ts] | c [tsʰ]: 菜 cài | s [s]: 四 sì | tip at the upper front teeth |
| curled | zh [ʈʂ]: 这 zhè | ch [ʈʂʰ]: 茶 chá | sh [ʂ]: 是 shì; r [ʐ]: 人 rén | tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth |
| soft | j [tɕ] | q [tɕʰ]: 去 qù | x [ɕ]: 谢谢 xièxie | middle of the tongue at the palate; only before i and ü |
Lesson notes
Three sets: flat, curled, soft
English has s and sh; Chinese has three sets, and they tell words apart: sì (四) “four” and shì (是) “to be” are different words.
Flat z c s (the tongue tip at the back of the upper front teeth): z is [ts] with no puff of air, like the ts of “cats”, never the z of “zoo”; c is [tsʰ], the same with a strong puff; s is [s], like English s.
Curled zh ch sh r (retroflex: the tongue tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth): zh has no puff, ch has a strong puff, sh is like the sh of “shirt” with the tongue curled back; r is close to English r, with the tongue tip curled further and the lips not rounded: 人 rén.
Soft j q x (palatal: the tongue tip down behind the lower teeth, the middle of the tongue raised); before i the lips are spread (jī), before ü rounded (qù). x is between s and sh. They come only before i and ü: 去 qù, 谢谢 xièxie.
The puff of air from lesson 2 works here too: c, ch, q have a puff; z, zh, j don't.
Common mistakes:
• NOT the k of “queen” for q — q is soft, with a puff of air.
• NOT the z of “zoo” for r — the tongue curls, no hiss.
• NOT ks or z for x — x is soft (the tongue tip down).
• NOT a flat s in sh — in shì the tongue is curled.
The vowel after z, zh and co., and the older English spelling of names
After z c s and zh ch sh r the letter i is not the ee of “see”; the consonant just goes on with voice: 四 sì, 是 shì, 日 rì. The tongue doesn't rise to ee.
After j q x the letter i is a real ee, and the letter u sounds like ü: 去 qù, 学 xué. The dots are left out because a plain u never comes after j q x.
Older English books spell Chinese names differently (see the table): Peking, Canton, Mao Tse-tung. These spellings help you recognize a name, but they hide the tones and blur the sets: ch stands for both zh and j, and the apostrophe that marked the puff of air is usually dropped. English readers tend to read pinyin letters as English ones (Xī'ān as “zee-AN”, xièxie as “ZEE-eh-zee”): the older spellings were made for that habit, pinyin was not. Read only by pinyin.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “see” for 四 sì — the tongue doesn't rise to ee.
• NOT “koo” for 去 qù — after q it's ü.
• NOT reading aloud from an older English spelling — it has no tones.