Overview of pronunciation and Pinyin romanization

The following chart illustrates the contour of the four Mandarin tones when a syllable is spoken in isolation, that is, when it is neither preceded nor followed by another syllable.

1 level pitch ¯ 2 rising pitch ´ 3 falling-rising pitch ˇ 4 falling pitch `

Syllables whose isolation tone is the third tone change their contour in certain contexts as follows.