Dialogue 3

A: 再见 zài jiàn！ Goodbye !

B：再见 zài jiàn ！ Bye !

New Word

4. 再见 zài jiàn：to see you around ; see you again !

再 again ; 见 see/meet

2. The Neutral Tone

Apart from the four tones mentioned previously, there is another tone in Chinese, which is short and light, known as "the neutral tone". For example:

mā ma yé ye nǎi nai bà ba

妈妈 爷爷 奶奶 爸爸

3. Rules of Pinyin (1) :Tone Making and Abbreviation

(1) 标调法 Tone Making

Tone Marks in Chinese pinyin are put above vowels. When there are two or more vowels in the final of a syllable, the tone should be marked on the one that is pronounced with the mouth more wide-open, the sequence being "a,o,e,i,u, u ,ü”in the descending order. The compound final iu is exception to this rule, in which the tone mark is put on u rather than i as iu is the abbreviation of iou. The neutral tone is unmarked.

(2) 省写 Abbreviation

When iou, uel, uei or uen follows an initial, they are written as iu, ui, and un respectively, for example, niu, gui, lun.