Chinese — Pronunciation for English Speakers
This guide is based on a phoneme-by-phoneme comparison of Chinese and English. Chinese and English share 14 sounds — about 29% of Chinese's inventory. The remaining sounds are where English speakers will need to focus their practice.
Chinese is tonal — it uses 6 distinct tones. English is not tonal, so this is an entirely new dimension of pronunciation for English speakers. A word spoken with the wrong pitch can mean something entirely different, or nothing at all.
Sounds to learn from scratch (28)
These phonemes exist in Chinese but not in English. English speakers will need to learn to produce and perceive them as new categories — not just a variation of an existing English sound.
Familiar sounds (14)
These phonemes exist in both Chinese and English. You already produce and perceive them — though they may appear in different positions or syllable structures.
English sounds not used in Chinese (31)
These English phonemes don't exist in Chinese. Native Chinese speakers learning English will face the reverse challenge with these sounds.