Standard Chinese; Mandarin — Pronunciation for English Speakers
This guide is based on a phoneme-by-phoneme comparison of Standard Chinese; Mandarin and English. Standard Chinese; Mandarin and English share 13 sounds — about 27% of Standard Chinese; Mandarin's inventory. The remaining sounds are where English speakers will need to focus their practice.
Standard Chinese; Mandarin is tonal — it uses 4 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 (32)
These phonemes exist in Standard Chinese; Mandarin 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 (13)
These phonemes exist in both Standard Chinese; Mandarin and English. You already produce and perceive them — though they may appear in different positions or syllable structures.
English sounds not used in Standard Chinese; Mandarin (32)
These English phonemes don't exist in Standard Chinese; Mandarin. Native Standard Chinese; Mandarin speakers learning English will face the reverse challenge with these sounds.