拼音和声调
Pinyin and tones

你从第一课就在看拼音：nǐ hǎo、xièxie、Hànyǔ。可是要记住一件事——拼音不是汉语的文字。汉语的文字是汉字。拼音用的是拉丁字母，它的工作只有一个：把汉字的读音写下来，让你知道这个字怎么念。中国的小学生也是先学拼音，再学汉字的。

You have been reading pinyin since lesson one: nǐ hǎo, xièxie, Hànyǔ. But hold on to one fact — pinyin is not the writing system of Chinese. That is the characters. Pinyin uses Latin letters and has exactly one job: to write down how a character is read. Chinese schoolchildren learn it first too, and only then start on the characters.

四个声调：第一声高而平，像“妈”；第二声往上升，像“麻”；第三声先低下去，像“马”；第四声从高往下掉，像“骂”。同一个 ma，四个声调，四个词。所以说错声调不是“口音不好”，是说了别的词。你早就会的两个词就是最好的例子：买（mǎi）和卖（mài）。声调符号写在 a、o、e、i、u 上面，有 a 就写在 a 上：hǎo、xiǎng、mǎi。

Four tones: the first is high and level, as in 妈 mā, mother; the second rises, as in 麻 má, hemp; the third dips low, as in 马 mǎ, horse; the fourth falls sharply, as in 骂 mà, to scold. One syllable ma, four tones, four words. Getting a tone wrong is therefore not a matter of accent — it is saying a different word. Two words you have known for months make the point: 买 mǎi, to buy, and 卖 mài, to sell. The mark itself sits on a, o, e, i or u, and if there is an a it goes on the a: hǎo, xiǎng, mǎi.

最后分清两个词。语音说的是一种语言全部的声音；读音说的是某一个字、某一个词怎么念。同一个字可以有两个读音：“睡觉”里的觉念 jiào，“觉得”里的觉念 jué；“银行”里的行念 háng，不念 xíng。这样的字不少，遇到了就得记住它在哪个词里念什么。

Finally, separate two terms. 语音 is the sound system of a language as a whole; 读音 is how one particular character or word is read. The same character can have two readings: 觉 is jiào in 睡觉 but jué in 觉得; 行 is háng in 银行, not xíng. There are many such characters, and the reading has to be learned with the word, not with the character alone.

念这四个词，一个一个地念，听自己的声调：妈、麻、马、骂。然后念这两句：“我买书”“我卖书”。最后找三个你常用的词，把它们的拼音写下来，声调符号别忘了写——写对了，你就真的记住了这个词。

Read the four aloud, one at a time, and listen to yourself: mā, má, mǎ, mà. Then say both of these: 我买书 and 我卖书. Finally take three words you use often and write out their pinyin, tone marks included. If the marks are right, you have genuinely learned the word.