Learn Chinese for Free—Lesson 14
Today's Chinese characters:
你能说慢点儿吗
The other Chinese characters contained in this lesson have already been studied previously. You can just click on them and go back to the corresponding lesson.
Do they speak too fast? Just tell them 你能说慢点儿吗？(Can you speak more slowly?)
With this last sentence you have got a "survival kit" that for sure can help you.
| Character Knowledge Meter |
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16.4%
Today with this lesson your knowledge of Chinese characters will reach 16.4% of all the Chinese language usage! |
Characters' Essentials
Description and Examples
How to and when read 儿 as 'r' This is a feature, called erhua or erization, of Standard Mandarin Chinese. When an erization occurs, 儿 is not pronounced as "ér" (an exception might be its pronunciation in lyrics for balance or euphony). It is just a phonetic notation suffix to indicate that the pronunciation of the preceding character must be changed by adding a final "r" sound. For example, the pronunciation of 点儿 is not "diǎn ér" but "diǎnr". How do you know when 儿 is to be read "ér" and when not? Sadly, you cannot know if you don't first memorize which words are made of the suffix 儿. Just for you to know, despite being a rule of Standard Mandarin, in the south of China (including Shanghai) it is definitely unknown or completely ignored. It seems that a lot of people really don't like it! |
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