Mandarin Chinese Tone Pair Drills

Pinyin Charts

Use the following charts with the method previously described. This page is also available in Chinese characters. The downloadable version includes English translations.

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One-Character Adjectives

Tone	Adjectives
1	xin,   hei,   gan,   qing,   suan
2	mang,   chang,   qiang,   hong,   you
3	hao,   xiao,   zao,   wan,   mei,   leng,   duan
4	da,   gui,   kuai,   man,   huai,   re,   e

Two-Character Adjectives

Tone	Adjectives
1, 1	shang xin,   zao gao
1, 2	tu ran
1, 3	wei xian,   xin ku
1, 4	gao xing,   fang bian,   an jing
1, 0	cong ming,   shu fu,   qing chu
2, 1	nian qing,   nan ting,   nan shuo
2, 2	liu xing,   wu liao
2, 3	nan dong,   ming xian
2, 4	bu cuo,   rong yi,   he shi
2, 0	pian yi,   ma fan
3, 1	hao chi,   hao ting,   jin zhang
3, 2	you ming,   hao wan,   jiao hua
3, 3	hao dong,   bao shou
3, 4	hao kan,   ke ai,   man yi
3, 0	nuan he (nuan huo)
4, 1	yong gong,   zi si
4, 2	te bie,   hao qi,   re qing
4, 3	xing gan
4, 4	zhong yao,   kuai le
4, 0	piao liang,   li hai,   ke qi

One-Character Modifiers

Tone	Modifiers
1	zhen
2	man,  (bu),* (hen),* (ting),*
3	hen,  ting
4	bu,   tai

* 不 (bu) becomes second tone when it precedes a fourth tone. 很 (hen) and 挺 (ting) both become second tone when they precede a third tone. See Mandarin Tone Changes for complete information.

Two-Character Modifiers

Tone	Modifier	Tone	Modifier
1, 2	fei chang	3, 4	bi jiao
2, 4	bu tai	4, 2	te bie

Pronouns

Tone	Singular Pronouns	Tone	Plural Pronouns
1	ta	1, 0	ta men
3	wo,   ni	3, 0	wo men,   ni men