Learn Chinese with Yangyang – Pinyin Lesson “ü” and its spelling rules

by Sabina on August 26, 2010


www.learnchinesewithyangyang.com “ü” is one of the most difficult sounds in Mandarin Chinese. How do you correctly pronounce it? In this lesson, seasoned Chinese instructor Yangyang will answer the above questions and guide viewers painlessly through the basics of Pinyin, the foundation of Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. You will have a firm grasp of the “ü” sound and its spelling rules after this lesson. For comlete Pinyin lessons, please go to: www.yoyochinese.com.

{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }

tojsiab100 August 26, 2010 at 9:46 pm

I want to study the Original character of sounds.

Bruceyang751 August 26, 2010 at 9:47 pm

Looking for an English-Chinese exchange partner.
Hey . My name is Yang Yang, I will be going to the US. for my PhDon International Disaster prevention Issue from 2012. I worked as an University Chinese(Mandarin) and Martial art teacher for 3 years. I love Music, and cooking. I am eager to do Chinese English Exchange study. I am patient, funny and skillful with students. I could be your good partner. Please email me.

Facebook:bruceyang751@hotmail.com
Skype : bruceyang751

learnchineseonline1 August 26, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Great explanation!

MultiMexico1234 August 26, 2010 at 11:30 pm

it kond of sounds like “yu”.

tesla40k August 27, 2010 at 12:14 am

@sprengstoff9 the native region of the speaker does make a difference. For example, because of the lack of 捲舌音 in their native language, many native speakers of the Min language group tend to pronounce “ü” as “i,” for example “美女” sounds like “美妳,” or “綠茶” as “立cá”… Other than the standard, I’ve only heard “ü” pronounced as “u” or “i”. But then again, I’ve only associated with Taiwanese, Cantonese and Bejingese

robertgenito August 27, 2010 at 1:03 am

thank you for uploading this video! very helpful :)

sprengstoff9 August 27, 2010 at 1:52 am

Yangyang, one thing I’ve been struggling with is the pronounciation of u. I’ve heard it pronounced both as oo, o. I usually hear it pronounced as o, but have been yelled at for not pronouncing it oo. Is this difference geographical?

arvindpradhan August 27, 2010 at 2:14 am

你很好的老师。

qfuzi August 27, 2010 at 2:15 am

useful vid

triturense August 27, 2010 at 2:22 am

where are the lessons 3 to 9?please reply me

TSANGSE August 27, 2010 at 3:12 am

Xie xie for the nice lesson. I hope i will hear more chinese lessons from you.

derekyeu August 27, 2010 at 3:34 am

Not only good lessons. But a pretty teacher makes it even better.

triturense August 27, 2010 at 3:47 am

where are the lesson 3 to 9?

sprengstoff9 August 27, 2010 at 4:43 am

犯太棒了, 这部是很有用!

67kneil August 27, 2010 at 5:29 am

great vid

BonnieG007 August 27, 2010 at 6:18 am

Nin Hao This is so exciting I am learning alot xie xie yang yang!

misterjones2000 August 27, 2010 at 6:32 am

Xie xie for the great lesson. i hope to see the missing lessons soon! Zaijian!

parsprincess August 27, 2010 at 7:30 am

yeh im suscribed to her she is good
but its nice to have different lessons from different people :p they are both really good xxx

shayanxtra August 27, 2010 at 7:58 am

anyone heard of peggyteacheschinese? she teaches chinese on youtube too

sprengstoff9 August 27, 2010 at 7:58 am

谢谢妳解释这件事秧秧

oneunderall August 27, 2010 at 8:37 am

Oh wow 我喜欢这视频.

nelink250X August 27, 2010 at 9:00 am

Thank you very much. You are talented teacher. ;)

biantai888 August 27, 2010 at 9:52 am

This is one good teacher!

taylorhg August 27, 2010 at 10:11 am

the hardest sound for me is still the difference from Si and Xu, i can pronounce both but i get them mixed up allot.

taylorhg August 27, 2010 at 10:43 am

非常谢谢!!!! i have studied Chinese for 3 years and i have learned how to make the u sound but it has never been explained to me, i always wondered what the 2 dots were for, now i know thank you very much

Mou December 9, 2010 at 7:49 am

go to an online spanish dictionary.
there's tons, i'm sure you'll find one easily.
just remember to change the endings.

AFR-CAM December 25, 2010 at 8:44 am

It's not really racist. Anymore, everyone is looking to become a victim of something.

tekdemon March 20, 2011 at 8:55 am

Peking is way worse in terms of pronunciation than Beijing, though to be honest it was spelled that way as part of a system of phoneticizing Chinese words, so you weren’t really supposed to pronounce it like an English word. For that matter, Beijing is how it’s spelled in pin-yin, so if you know how to correctly pronounce pin-yin it would sound just like the Chinese. So really the problem is just that most English speakers will pronounce it like English. If you really pronounced Kung Fu correctly under the Wade-Giles system it should sound exactly like how you pronounce Gong Fu under pin yin. I will say that pin yin tends to be closer to the Chinese pronunciation if you’re just saying it in English though, they chose some really weird symbols for Wade-Giles.

Guus April 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm

Interesting to see how you often bring the reverse perspective. Mine is the perspective of a Westerner trying to learn Chinese and figuring that if I try to infuse melody into the sentence, it ends up changing the meaning of the Chinese words.
Yours of Chinese who have a hard time adopting the sentence melody that's essential for English and other European languages.

Kelly W. April 30, 2011 at 5:11 am

Parenthood is an AWFUL show. I can’t even watch more than 5 minutes of it without turning it off. How on Earth can Chuck win (3) TV Guide viewers choice awards and once again be up for cancellation. It is THE BEST SHOW on TV!

Ed May 7, 2011 at 3:18 pm

#1-20: Hey, you forced people you didn't tolerate across the sea, then threw the rest of your trash who couldn't get jobs here, and then subsequently got pwned by them in the Revolutionary War. You could've had a great nation with all your petty spelling rules, but I think you blew it. Sorry.

Also, baseball is played in a lot of other countries. Just because your country sucks at it doesn't mean it's not a world sport.

Geralynknfxd June 14, 2011 at 3:38 am

Do you have trouble on #Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation? Try #iPinyin for #iPhone/#iPodTouch

HagiwaraZesthu July 19, 2011 at 3:05 am

Explore the Guide to Houses in the official

Dottie July 21, 2011 at 6:23 am

Someone forwarded this on Linkedlin. Interesting post, Aaron, especially the list of terminology between Mainland and Taiwan. I am the voice coach and voice of Rosetta Stone's Mandarin Chinese product so this subject interests me greatly. During the production of our product, we had philosophical debates on whether to use 'Putonghua? (普通話) from the Mainland or ?Guoyu? (國語) from Taiwan. In the end, it was decided it should be the former as the product was designed to teach people to learn 'Putonghua? (普通話), not 'Guoyu? (國語). Maybe sometime down the line, there might be a 'Guoyu' version.

flemmingbee2 October 17, 2011 at 5:24 am

I have a feeling that your friend would probably be able to read those old-style kanji if she encountered them in a body of text. Calligraphy has little or no context, therefore not easy to recognize unfamiliar characters in it.

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