Lesson 11 – Ordering Dinner

Pinyin and Pronunciation

Here are the rest of the ü-medials (the ones with the “ü” sound in the middle). Note that the dots are only used with “n” and “l” initials. This is a convenience since the ones with “n” and “l” initials are the only ones what would be ambiguous if the dots were omitted. In other words the u sound (pronounced “oo” as in moo) only occurs in syllables starting with “n” or “l”.

finals: initials:	ü	üe	üan	un	iong	tongue position
	yu	yue	yuan	yun	yong
n	nü	nüe
l	lü	lüe
j	ju	jue	juan	jun	jiong
q	qu	que	quan	qun	qiong
x	xu	xue	xuan	xun	xiong

To produce the ü sound, try pronouncing “yi” (ee) and protruding your lips. The picture above shows that the tip of the tongue presses against the lower teeth. You can contrast “lu” and “lü” to see how different the tongue positions are.

Listen and circle the one you hear

lu – lü, nu – nü, ju – jue, qu – que,
quan – chuan, ye – yue, jiong – zhong, qiong – chong,
zuan – suan, ruan – run, shu – xu, xue – shui,
weng – wong, xun – shun, xuan – shuan, chuang – qiang

Listen and add the correct tone marks

fan dian, chao fan, shu cai, he tang, zhu rou
niu rou, ba kuai qian, xi huan, duo shao qian,
chi yu, tang mian, ji rou

Bonus Dialog