Mandarin Chinese -- Lesson 1 -- Review (Open Book)

Sarah is writing pin-yin, which is a system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese. In pin-yin, Tone 3 is represented by a rising tone mark, which is written as "ě". Sarah correctly puts the Tone 3 mark on the word "hen" by writing it as "hěn". Therefore, she is right.

The word "jà" is in tone 4.

The initial "ai" is pronounced as "aye" because in English, the letter combination "ai" is commonly pronounced as the long vowel sound "ay." This pronunciation is seen in words like "aim," "rain," and "paint."

In the Chinese language, the statement that finals never come before initials is true. This means that in a syllable, the final sound always comes after the initial sound. For example, in the word "ma", the initial sound is "m" and the final sound is "a". This rule is an important aspect of Chinese phonetics and pronunciation.

Tone 1 is described as flat/steady because it does not have any noticeable changes in pitch or intensity. It remains consistent and does not fluctuate or vary in any significant way. This type of tone is often associated with a calm and stable demeanor, lacking any sudden or dramatic shifts in emotion or expression.

Any words in pin-yin that have NO tone marks on it are tone 5 words.

The initial "zh" is pronounced similar to "j" in adjure. This pronunciation is not found in the Chinese language, but rather in English. It is a voiced postalveolar fricative sound, similar to the "zh" sound in the English word "measure".

The given options consist of different combinations of letters that resemble the "eng" in the word "English". However, the correct answer is "ung" in "rung" because it is the only option that has the same pattern of consonant+vowel+consonant as "eng" in "English". The other options have either a different consonant or vowel pattern, making them incorrect.

The correct answer is "the 'sh' in sheeps" because the initial "x" is pronounced like the "sh" sound in the word "sheeps". This pronunciation is commonly used in English for words that have an initial "x" such as "xylophone" or "xenophobia".

The initial "ian" in the given word sounds like "yen". "Yen" is a currency used in Japan and the word itself starts with the same sound as "ian". The other options, "Ian", "yuan", "yun", and "yawn" do not have the same initial sound as "ian".

The correct answer is "same as English s." This means that the initial "s" is pronounced in the same way as the letter "s" is pronounced in the English language.

The initial "ou" in the word "okay" sounds like the "ou" in "ouch!". Both have the same vowel sound, which is a combination of the "o" and "u" sounds. In "okay", the "o" sound is more dominant, while in "ouch!", the "u" sound is more dominant. However, both words have a similar sound when it comes to the "ou" combination.

The given correct answer suggests that the initial "ueng" sounds like "won" and ends like "rung". This means that the pronunciation of "ueng" starts with the same sound as the word "won" and ends with the same sound as the word "rung".