Clear English for Chinese speakers

Mandarin allows only a vowel, n, ng or the “er” of èr at the end of a syllable. Cantonese’s final p, t and k are held closed and never released, a habit that carries over well, since English speakers often leave final stops unreleased too. The endings neither language uses (L, S, Z, V, D and clusters) are the ones that fade or drop.

That happens in three ways: the consonant drops (“hand” as “han”), a vowel gets added (“good” as “good-uh”), or a voiced ending loses its voice, so “food” sounds like “foot”. In our data, Mandarin and Cantonese speakers drop a word’s final consonant about 10% of the time, against about 5% for all learners.

1. 1

   Finish the word

   Say the last sound on its own first (“d”, “l”, “z”), then attach it to the word.

2. 2

   Keep the voice on

   For D, Z and V endings, keep your voice buzzing into the consonant. The vowel before a voiced ending is a little longer: “food” is longer than “foot”.

3. 3

   No extra vowel

   Close the consonant and stop. If you hear “uh” after “good”, shorten the release.

Z said as S

English uses Z in many words spelled with S: “is”, “was”, “does”. Pinyin “z” is a voiceless [ts], like the end of “cats”, not an English Z. Mandarin speakers miss Z about 40% of the time and Cantonese speakers about 55%; when they do, it is heard as S about 80% and 90% of the time. The fix is voice: hold a hissing S, then switch your voice on without moving your tongue.

V said as F or W

When V is missed, F is the most common replacement. Cantonese speakers miss V about 40% of the time, about 75% of those as F, and Mandarin speakers about 25%. Some Mandarin speakers say W with the lip close to the teeth, so “very” and “wary” drift together. For V, rest your top teeth on your lower lip and buzz. For W, round your lips forward; your teeth touch nothing.

N and L, for some southern speakers

In several southern Chinese dialects, and for many Hong Kong Cantonese speakers, N and L at the start of a syllable merge, so “night” and “light” can sound alike. Use your nose as the check: hum an N and it vibrates; on L the air flows around the sides of the tongue and the nose stays still.

“Water” sounds too careful when its T is a full, crisp T, because American English uses a flap there: a quick tap of the tongue, close to a light D, for a T between vowels before an unstressed syllable, as in “water”, “better” and “city”. Across first tries at 14 flap T practice words, Mandarin speakers say a full, crisp T about 35% of the time, against about 5% for Spanish speakers, and land the flap only about 35% of the time (about 55% across all learners). Cantonese speakers show the same split.

A full T is still clear, just more word by word. To flap, tap the tongue tip once against the ridge behind your top teeth, too briefly to build the puff of a full T. More in the American flap T guide.

“Ship” and “sheep” sound the same to many Chinese speakers because English pairs a tense vowel with a shorter, relaxed partner (“sheep” and “ship”, “fool” and “full”) that Mandarin does not separate, and Cantonese has the relaxed versions only before certain endings. The relaxed vowel gets replaced by its tense neighbor. Mandarin speakers miss the short I about 35% of the time, about 65% of those as EE, and the short OO in “good” about 40% of the time, about 60% of those as the OO in “food”.

Change the vowel quality, not just its length. For “ship”, let the smile of EE go and drop the jaw slightly. For “full”, round your lips less than for “fool” and keep the tongue relaxed.