Tone cards

Using it

The same syllable in all four tones — and the neutral, where the syllable has one — laid out together so the difference is the only thing on screen. Each card carries a real word read that way, so mā má mǎ mà comes out as 妈 麻 马 骂, and tapping one says it. Learners who can hear mā and mǎ apart in isolation still lose them in a sentence, which is why this is worth returning to long after it feels too easy.

The five cards

One per tone, left to right: first, second, third, fourth, and the neutral where the syllable has one.

The mark above each

The pitch shape drawn as a line — flat, rising, dipping, falling.

The speaker on a card

Says the real word underneath, not the bare syllable, because a tone in isolation is not what anybody hears.