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Absolute Beginners: The Second Tone

Now that you've mastered the giddy highs of the first tone, it's time to move onto something a bit more challenging: tone number two. Despite the fact that many people maul the second tone (relax, you won't), the basics are pretty simple: just start near the middle of your vocal range and head up until you pass out, glass breaks, or you're mauled by a pack of dogs.

We recommend listening to our podcast first and then heading to the vocabulary page to listen to and practice our new words in isolation. When you're ready to move forward, step into the text section, where we combine our new words with some of the material we learned in our lesson on the first tone, to make a number of sentences you can use right away. Cumulative and progressive lessons? Huzzah!

orbital

said on

October 21, 2008

nice lesson and useful approach for total beginners. when you get all four done you should package them together in a lesson set.

benchannevy

said on

October 30, 2008

first timer: one question if i may. what's the opposite of bother in chinese, character and pinyin, please?

trevelyan

said on

October 30, 2008

hi benchannevy,

There aren't always one-to-one translations. If you want to say, "it's no bother" or "there's no problem" you can always use 没事 (mei2shi4). There's a quick lesson on that here

Otherwise, maybe you can give us a sentence and we'll figure out how best to translate it together.

leanne

said on

October 30, 2008

Go to Tangshan for a month, a city famous for earthquake, 2nd tone and only 2hrs away from Beijing. Every word is second tone there. How do I know? I'm from Tangshan.

leanne

said on

October 30, 2008

Hi, David, we don't really say 中国行，sounds like Travel in China. I understand you are trying to use 2nd tone with 行, try 你真行！

leanne

said on

October 30, 2008

In English if you say he is ok, actually means he's not that good. Is it right? In this case, if you say 他行 in Chinese, it means, he's pretty good. It's opposit.

david

said on

October 30, 2008

ok is ok in English... I won't be complaining to the chef, but maybe I won't come back to this restaurant any time soon. 行 seems positive in Chinese.

We're trying to make the tonal lessons somewhat cumulative, so are reusing words like 中国 that were touched on in lesson one. Ergo 中国行 - a totally valid way of expressing the idea. Our tonal palate will get much richer once we have the third tone in the mix....

david

said on

October 30, 2008

@leanne - lol at."Tangshan: every word is second tone there." You guys should make that your city motto. Sean has a pretty impressive second tone anyway. : p

Echo

said on

October 30, 2008

@leanne,

Well, if you really don't think we Chinese people can say "中国行", I am sure that you were not in Beijing during the Olympic time...

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

leanne

said on

October 30, 2008

lol! No, you're right!

BDubs

said on

May 25, 2014

:"He's ok" does not invariably have a negative connotation in English.

Tithonia

said on

March 14, 2015

Could you give some examples of when it is appropriate to use 别烦人? For example, I am tempted to say this to my 4-year-old when he is bothering his big sister. Is that appropriate? Would it be something to say to a pushy vendor, or would that be rude?

I am also wondering if you can say more about the difference between 成 and 行.

Thank you very much.

Grace Qi

said on

March 14, 2015

@Tithonia

”别烦人“ can be used between couples, good friends when someone is being annoying, but depending on the tones you use, it can be interpreted as "leave me(us) alone" in a joking way.

About the situation of your 4-year-old son bothering his big sister, you can literally tell him "别烦她". "别烦人" is also fine, but usually it implies "stop bothering me/us".

And yes, it would be rude if you say that to a vendor or stranger, even (s)he is pushy. You can say"不用了，谢谢"instead:)

When using "ok" "cool" to answer a question or respond to a suggestion, you can literally use 成 or 行，in this context, these two are interchangeable. But when it comes to describing something or someone is good, you can say 行 not 成. eg. 中国行；我行; 他行 etc. but but make sure you have the positive tone when you say it, otherwise it might be interpreted as sarcasm.:)