Rules of the Pinyin (phonetics) <4>
Rules of the Pinyin (phonetics)
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Generally speaking, each Chinese character has only one tone but there are a few exceptions.
A frequently used word “一” (meaning “One”) has three tones:
| A. |
When “一” is used independently it pronounces as “yī” (the first tone). For example: 之一 --- zhī yī (meaning “one of”) 第一 --- dì yī (meaning “first”) |
| B. |
When it is followed by a word with the first, second or third tone, it pronounces as “yì” (the fourth tone). For example: 一些 –- yì-xiē (meaning “some”) 一年 –- yì-nián (meaning “one year”) 一起 –- yì-qǐ (meaning “together”) |
| C. |
when it is followed by a word with the fourth tone, it pronounces as “yí” (the second tone). For example: 一个 – yí-gè (meaning “a”) |