Similar Sounds Quiz
Can you tell zh from j? Train your ear on the most commonly confused Mandarin consonant pairs.
Ready to Test Your Ear?
Listen to two similar sounds and identify which syllable matches Sound A.
Click any example to hear the exaggerated pronunciation.
Retroflex vs Palatal
vs
vs
vs
Dental vs Retroflex
vs
vs
vs
Nasal Finals (-n vs -ng)
vs
vs
vs
Can you hear s or sh before you see the answer? Press play and choose after each word, and keep the transcript closed until you have tried both.
Transcript
- Can you hear S, or S H? Listen first.
- 四 (sì)
- 四 (sì)
- S. That word was four.
- Same tone, only the first sound changes.
- For S, the tongue is flat, behind the teeth.
- 四 (sì)
- For S H, it curls back.
- 是 (shì)
- 是 (shì)
- Now a new word, S or S H?
- 十 (shí)
- 十 (shí)
- S H. That word was ten.
- S is flat, S H curls back.
- Train your ear in the Similar Sounds Quiz, free, at The Pure Language dot com.
For s the tongue is flat, for sh it curls back.
The answers: two everyday words differ only in their first sound. 四 (sì, four) begins with s, 是 (shì, to be) begins with sh, and both are fourth tone. For s the tongue is flat, behind the teeth. For sh it curls back. 十 (shí, ten) also begins with sh, in the second tone.
Now try it with no answer on screen: choose Medium in the Difficulty menu, which adds s vs sh, press Start Quiz, then Sound A, and choose the syllable you hear.
- Retroflex (zh, ch, sh) - Curl your tongue tip back toward the roof of your mouth.
- Palatal (j, q, x) - Keep your tongue flat with the tip behind your lower teeth.
- Dental (z, c, s) - Tongue tip touches the back of your upper teeth.
- Front nasal (-n) - Tongue touches the ridge behind your upper teeth. The sound stops crisply.
- Back nasal (-ng) - The back of your tongue rises. The sound resonates longer.
- n vs l - For n, air flows through your nose. For l, air flows around the sides of your tongue.