---
title: The four tones: same sound, different meaning — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics
description: «The four tones: same sound, different meaning», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / The four tones: same sound, different…

# The four tones: same sound, different meaning

<!-- .vabout -->
Lesson 2 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/).

<!-- list vl: b t -->
- [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/1/) — In Mandarin the tune of a syllable is part of the word, like a vowel: change the tune and you change the word.
- [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/3/) — That is why Ming falls about laughing when you ask for táng (sweets) instead of tāng (soup), or count shǐ (poo) instead of shí (ten).
- [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/4/) — Mix-ups are part of learning by ear; every learner makes them, and the friends' giggles are friendly.
- [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/5/) — Listening hard, then copying the tune, is how you get it right.
- [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/6/) — mā («mah» sung high and level) is the first tone, as in māma (mum); keep it high and don't let it fall.
- [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/8/) — mǎ («mah» dipping low, then a little up) is the third tone, and mǎ means horse; in fast talk it often just goes low and stays there.
- [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/9/) — mà («MAH!» falling sharply) is the fourth tone and means to scold; Chinese speakers are not angry, Mandarin just has many falling words.
- [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/11/) — māma mà mǎ ma? means «is Mum scolding the horse?», a famous tone game friends use to test you, for fun and not to mock.
- [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/12/) — tāng (high) is soup and táng (rising) is sugar or sweets.
- [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/13/) — shuìjiào (both falling) is to sleep and shuǐjiǎo (both dipping) is boiled dumplings, the classic learner mix-up.
- [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/14/) — wèn (falling) is to ask and wěn (dipping) is to kiss, so qǐng wèn (may I ask) must fall.
- [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/15/) — mǎi (dipping) is to buy and mài (falling) is to sell; only the tone tells these opposites apart.
- [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/16/) — shí (rising) is ten, shǐ (dipping) is poo, and shì (falling) is «is» or «yes».
- [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/2-the-four-tones/17/) — bāozi (high) is a filled steamed bun and bàozi (falling) is a leopard.

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Hello and goodbye: the first words at the gate](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/1-hello-and-goodbye-at-the-gate/)
- next →: [Thank you, sorry, excuse me](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/3-thank-you-sorry-excuse-me/)
- ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)