Chinese Pinyin - Tones

This video gives the introduction of the language Chinese and also the tones of the language.


Tones

In Mandarin, words that have the same pronunciation can have different meanings depending on how the word is said. The "tone" of a word describes how the pitch changes as the word is said. There are four "tones" in Mandarin. The tones are represented in pinyin by marks above the words and are read from left to right. The absence of a tone also has meaning.
For example, the word "ma" can have a number of different meanings depending on how it is said.

Word with tone	Description of tone	Description of tone	Name of tone
mā	Mother	The straight line over the word indicates that the word should be said with a flat and unchanging high tone.	1st tone
má	To bother	The mark going up above the word indicates the word should be said in a rising tone.	2nd tone
mǎ	Horse	The down and then up mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling and then rising tone.	3rd tone
mà	To scold	The down mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling tone.	4th tone
ma	Grammatical marker used in a question.	When a word has no tone or mark above the word it is said to be neutral and is pronounced in an abbreviated manner with no emphasis.	Neutral

Using tones 1, 3, 4, and 5 in order we can form the sentence: mā mà mǎ ma?
This sentence asks the question: Did mother scold the horse?
The following diagram shows how the tones are pronounced in relation to each other.