Mā má mǎ mà ma. All of these words are pronounced like “mah” but have vastly different meanings (mom, numb/toad, horse/ant, curse/scold, question particle).

Tones are the rising and falling of pitch that accompanies the pronunciation of Chinese words. This inflection gives an added dimension to the Chinese language.

Just about every Chinese book/class/program I’ve been through starts out by emphasizing pronunciation and the importance of tones. Tones are important, right?

“A guy went into a restaurant and asked how much it was for yiwan shui jiao [one bowl of dumplings]. But he used the wrong tones and ended up asking the waitress how much it would cost for one night of sleep. The girl slapped him in the face. Tone and pronunciation is [are] key.” (From “He only Sounds Chinese” Chicago Sun-Times, January 11, 2007, Dave Hoekstra)

Can you think of other examples where what you meant to say and what you actually said didn’t quite match up? Post in comments or shoot me an email.

Well, that brings me to the inverse relationship of the strength of the tones relative to your level of fluency. If you’ve taken a class, the teacher gets you going on the different tones, grossly exaggerating the tones (with good reason, of course). If you haven’t spoken a tonal language, this will probably be difficult at first. But as you become more comfortable with the sounds, the tones will lessen in strength. That’s not to say that they go away, but they become less distinguishable. This is one of the reasons it’s hard for beginners to learn by watching movies or listening to the news; it’s almost impossible to pick up the tones at normal speaking speeds.

But what about songs?

Songs are tonal, and so is the Chinese language. In songs, the melody of the music wins out. So how can anybody understand what’s being said? I’ll admit that I can’t even catch what’s said in English songs, and of course, Chinese songs are even harder. But it’s all about two things: 1. Context and 2. Expectations.

Context: This is pretty obvious. If I write a complex sentence with with some difficult _____, will you be able to _____ what I’m trying to say? Most likely, yes. Learning indirectly through context is a powerful way to expand your skills. It might not be the most efficient way to learn new vocabulary, but if you can accept the fact that you don’t need to understand everything you hear/read, you won’t be hung up on those couple (or more) of unfamiliar words and miss out on the big picture/ 大概意思/dàgài yìsī.

Expectations: If you try to speak Chinese to a native speaker, they’re more than likely to expect to hear the correct tones, and will have difficulty understanding you if you use the wrong tones. This is frustrating. You think “can’t they at least try to guess what I’m trying to say?” However, when listening to music, no one is expecting to hear the correct tones, or any tones besides those of the melody. This is the difference. When I speak in flat tones to another non-native Chinese speaker, they usually have no problem understanding what I’m trying to say because the listener is anticipating what I’m going to say and is not necessarily focusing on my tones.

So there you have it, tones are important in certain contexts, but not always. So if you don’t remember the tone, just sing what you want to say.