The Second Tone

About

Now that you've mastered the giddy highs of the first tone, it's time to move onto something a bit more

challenging: tone number two. Despite the fact that many people maul the second tone (relax, you won't),

the basics are pretty simple: just start near the middle of your vocal range and head up until you pass

out, glass breaks, or you're mauled by a pack of dogs.

We recommend listening to our podcast first and then heading to the vocabulary page to listen to and

practice our new words in isolation. When you're ready to move forward, step into the text section, where

we combine our new words with some of the material we learned in our lesson on the first tone, to make

a number of sentences you can use right away. Cumulative and progressive lessons? Huzzah!

Sentences

中国行

Zhōngguó xíng

China is ok.

十一人

shíyī rén

11 people

中国人说中文

Zhōngguórén shuō zhōngwén

Chinese people speak Chinese

英国人说英文

Yīngguórén shuō yīngwén

People from England speak English

多花钱

duō huāqián

Spend more money

他行

tā xíng

He is ok

他很忙

tā hěn máng

He is very busy

中国人花钱

Zhōngguórén huāqián

Chinese people spend money

别烦人

bié fánrén

Don't be such a nuisance

Vocabulary

人

rén

person

noun

国

guó

country

noun

瓶

píng

bottle measure word 钱 qián money

noun

忙

máng

busy

adjective

烦

fán

bothersome

adjective

烦人

fánrén

bothersome

adjective

成

chéng

ok

phrase

行

xíng

ok

phrase

中国

Zhōngguó

China

noun

中国人

Zhōngguórén

Chinese person

noun

中文

zhōngwén

Chinese

noun