<p>Actually fefe's answer is a pretty good one (except maybe on the the remark that it is similar to few).</p>

<p>The gist is:
iu is the combination i and ou. So you start with the pronuncation is i and then put your lips and tongue together to get the ou.</p>

<p>From the book <a href="http://books.google.be/books?id=owmFO25j9soC&amp;lpg=PA28&amp;dq=iou%20iu%20pronunciation&amp;pg=PA28#v=onepage&amp;q=iou%20iu%20pronunciation&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">Mandarin Pronunciation, Explained with Diagrams</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>/iou/ is the combination of /i/ and /ou/. The /i/ in Mandarin is
  similar to the English /i:/ as in <em>see, sea</em>. The /ou/ is similar to
  the English /ou/ as in <em>so, no</em>. The Mandarin /iou/ is an even
  triphtong. In the production of the sound the jaw opens a little and
  then closes.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>See the link for the picture of the tongue and lip positions.</p>

<p>From <a href="http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/8" rel="nofollow">http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/8</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Mandarin's iu sound can confuse you because what is written is
  actually an abbreviated form of "iou," a straightforward combination
  of the vowel sounds i and ou (see Section 2). Thus the iu syllable
  sounds similar to the "yo" of the English word "yo-yo," with a bit
  more "oo" sound on the end. It is written as you when it stands alone,
  and as iu when it is preceded by a consonant (for example, diu, niu,
  liu).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This being said, there is quite some variation on how it pronounces in practice. The correct way is to have an ou sound (this is pinyin notation), however quite often native speakers pronounce it as u (again pinyin notation).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T10:18:27.720Z
2012-11-19T10:34:44.093Z
2012-11-19T10:34:44.093Z
BertR
<p>See also <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/994/43">my answer</a> to a similar question.</p>

<p>All characters <em>consonant</em>+iu are pronounced as "ee-ow" and not as "ee-oo". So <strong>liu</strong> would rhyme, so to speak, with <strong>low</strong> rather than <strong>few</strong>.</p>

<p>So when you say:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>You are correct, this is the proper way to pronounce it in Mandarin. Certainly, using English is not exact but it gives you the idea if you already heard it. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [jʊ] or [jʊ:] as in 'few'. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Who told you that is wrong. Perhaps in some dialect that's the way, but as far as Mandarin is concerned, you should stick to the original way you knew.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-05T11:02:13.723Z
The similar question you link to (and your answer) was very helpful, thank you!
cyanos
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-05T11:17:56.283Z
@cyanos Glad to be helpful! :)
Alenanno
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-10T14:44:28.143Z
`ee-ow` is indeed a good way to demonstrate the sound.
rhughes
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T10:27:38.307Z
2012-11-19T10:27:38.307Z
2017-04-13T12:48:06.093Z
Alenanno
<p>iu sounds like you, <a href="https://blog.international-lan.com/learning-mandarin-tones-important/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">learning Mandarin tone is so important</a> to be accurate in Mandarin speaking world, as a Mandarin learner, I found the tones are more frustrating, is there a better way to remember which word is which tone?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-17T07:19:28.527Z
2019-04-17T07:19:28.527Z
cystallee
<p>To me, the sound would be very similar to the one in "Few".</p>

<p>If you look at the IPA of "iu" in Chinese, which you can find in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin" rel="nofollow">wiki</a> ([iɤu], with some decorations I'm not able to reproduce here) or <a href="http://www.d-ear.com/CCC/resources/SampaC.pdf" rel="nofollow">SAMPA-C</a> ([iəu], "iu" is spelled as "iou" in the document), you'll see that unlike the [jʊ] in "Few", we used [i], but not [j] and there's another (transitional) vowel in the middle.</p>

<p>'iu' is made up of the 'i' and 'ou' sound in Chinese. (That's why it is spell as 'iou' in the SAMPA-C document, and also in the pinyin "you".) So you can try to produce "iu" from 'i' and 'ou'. Sorry I'm not able to describe how to produce the sound literally. My suggestion, like others have made in the comment, is to listen to how natives say it. And if you can find a native, let him/her correct your pronunciation.</p>

<p>NOTE: The two versions of IPA came from the two sources may come from the variation of how different people produce it, and may come from the notation variations of IPA, or both.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T07:19:58.910Z
@B.D I know how "liu" is pronounced, but I'm not I can catch the exact pronunciation of "Few".
fefe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T07:23:38.587Z
@B.D I don't think the pronunciation given by google translate is very good. And the pronunciation given by google translate for the first character is "liu4" but not "liu1".
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-10T13:06:14.997Z
溜 can can be pronounced as liu1 or liu4.
joehua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T05:53:28.787Z
2012-11-19T05:53:28.787Z
fefe
<p>I think there are indeed some people who when speaking Mandarin with the accent of their own dialect end up sounding more like "few". For example, I think some Taiwanese native speakers sound like that when they speak in Mandarin.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-20T18:41:14.627Z
2012-11-20T18:41:14.627Z
Dan
<p><strong>The short version:</strong> I think English &quot;go&quot; is closer to the correct sound than English &quot;few&quot;. If you want a non-scientific description which is reasonably accurate, I would use &quot;low&quot; (let's switch to the same consonant) with an added but not emphasised [i] between &quot;l&quot; and &quot;ow&quot;.</p>
<p><strong>The slightly longer version:</strong> Pinyin <em>-iu</em> is short for <em>-iou</em>, which means that if you stress the syllable and pronounce it very clearly, it rhymes with Pinyin <em>you</em>. For example, listen to the <em>liu</em> (select the third tone, it's longest and clearest) pronounced <a href="http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learning-tools/introduction-to-pinyin.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
<p>However, note that the  diacritic (tone mark) in <em>liù</em> is placed on the <em>u</em> and not the <em>i</em>, which means that <em>u</em> is emphasised and <em>i</em> reduced. This can be written in several ways, but in Duanmu's <em>The Phonology of Standard Chinese</em> (2007), the broad transcription is [liəu] but in the narrow transcription, the [i] has been reduced to a superscript &quot;j&quot;, so [lʲəu]. This reduction is fairly obvious if you listen to natural, connected speech. It's also common to further reduce the [əu]. If you listen to <a href="http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learning-tools/introduction-to-pinyin.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the same sources as above</a>, but select the fourth tone for the same syllable <em>liu</em>, you will hear the difference.</p>
<p>If you're curious about other learner-related problems with Pinyin, such as other cases where one letter stands for many sounds (i is the most obvious example because the sounds are completely different), I've summarised the important ones here: <a href="https://www.hackingchinese.com/a-guide-to-pinyin-traps-and-pitfalls/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learn Mandarin pronunciation</a>, which also contains some audio samples.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-19T10:36:27.600Z
Okay, two other people managed to answer the same question during the time it took me to write the answer. Well spent time indeed. :)
Olle Linge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-05T11:50:51.427Z
Unicode has a superscript j: `ʲ` that you can copy and paste in if Stack Exchange doesn't let you use HTML superscript.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 4.0
2012-11-19T10:35:42.813Z
2020-09-09T20:08:03.793Z
2020-09-09T20:08:03.793Z
Olle Linge
<p>How does one pronounce the 'iu' sound (as in liu4 = six)?</p>

<p>I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.</p>

<p>But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [iu:] as in 'few'. (And from the pinyin, I suppose it would make more sense.)</p>

<p>Is a 'u' sound the proper way to pronounce it? Or is this merely a regional difference in pronunciation (where both are acceptable)?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-18T20:18:49.223Z
Are you wanting to knwo how it's pronounced by a nonnative speaker or the way it should be pronounced in standard Mandarin? It has no corresponding vowel in English so looking for an approximation this way has no value. You should either listen to how it's pronounced by a native speaker or by using its IPA.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-18T20:23:02.557Z
By the way, in English, at leadt the flavour I am used to, both *low* and *few* end in the same vowel even though they are two distinct diphthongs.
deutschZuid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-11-18T21:15:12.850Z
I would like to know the proper way to say it by native speakers, but am open to the possibility of there being multiple, correct regional variants. I'll have to admit, I'm not too familiar with IPA, but I made an edit to include the IPA in the question.
cyanos
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-05T11:45:43.263Z
[ʊ] is not the sound in "few", it is the sound in "foot". I can't think of any word in English with the combination [iʊ]. The u-sound in "few" is [u] (American style) / [u:] (British style).
hippietrail
<pronunciation>
How is the pinyin 'iu' pronounced?
# How is the pinyin 'iu' pronounced?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-11-18)

How does one pronounce the 'iu' sound (as in liu4 = six)?

I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.

But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [iu:] as in 'few'. (And from the pinyin, I suppose it would make more sense.)

Is a 'u' sound the proper way to pronounce it? Or is this merely a regional difference in pronunciation (where both are acceptable)?

**Tags:** pronunciation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you wanting to knwo how it's pronounced by a nonnative speaker or the way it should be pronounced in standard Mandarin? It has no corresponding vowel in English so looking for an approximation this way has no value. You should either listen to how it's pronounced by a native speaker or by using its IPA.  
> **username_1**: By the way, in English, at leadt the flavour I am used to, both *low* and *few* end in the same vowel even though they are two distinct diphthongs.  
> **username_0**: I would like to know the proper way to say it by native speakers, but am open to the possibility of there being multiple, correct regional variants. I'll have to admit, I'm not too familiar with IPA, but I made an edit to include the IPA in the question.  
> **username_2**: [ʊ] is not the sound in "few", it is the sound in "foot". I can't think of any word in English with the combination [iʊ]. The u-sound in "few" is [u] (American style) / [u:] (British style).  

---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_10 on 2012-11-19. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

**The short version:** I think English "go" is closer to the correct sound than English "few". If you want a non-scientific description which is reasonably accurate, I would use "low" (let's switch to the same consonant) with an added but not emphasised [i] between "l" and "ow".

**The slightly longer version:** Pinyin *-iu* is short for *-iou*, which means that if you stress the syllable and pronounce it very clearly, it rhymes with Pinyin *you*. For example, listen to the *liu* (select the third tone, it's longest and clearest) pronounced [here](http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learning-tools/introduction-to-pinyin.aspx).

However, note that the diacritic (tone mark) in *liù* is placed on the *u* and not the *i*, which means that *u* is emphasised and *i* reduced. This can be written in several ways, but in Duanmu's *The Phonology of Standard Chinese* (2007), the broad transcription is [liəu] but in the narrow transcription, the [i] has been reduced to a superscript "j", so [lʲəu]. This reduction is fairly obvious if you listen to natural, connected speech. It's also common to further reduce the [əu]. If you listen to [the same sources as above](http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learning-tools/introduction-to-pinyin.aspx), but select the fourth tone for the same syllable *liu*, you will hear the difference.

If you're curious about other learner-related problems with Pinyin, such as other cases where one letter stands for many sounds (i is the most obvious example because the sounds are completely different), I've summarised the important ones here: [A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learn Mandarin pronunciation](https://www.hackingchinese.com/a-guide-to-pinyin-traps-and-pitfalls/), which also contains some audio samples.

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: Okay, two other people managed to answer the same question during the time it took me to write the answer. Well spent time indeed. :)  
> **username_2**: Unicode has a superscript j: `ʲ` that you can copy and paste in if Stack Exchange doesn't let you use HTML superscript.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-11-19. Score: 2

Actually username_7's answer is a pretty good one (except maybe on the the remark that it is similar to few).

The gist is:
iu is the combination i and ou. So you start with the pronuncation is i and then put your lips and tongue together to get the ou.

From the book [Mandarin Pronunciation, Explained with Diagrams](http://books.google.be/books?id=owmFO25j9soC&lpg=PA28&dq=iou%20iu%20pronunciation&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q=iou%20iu%20pronunciation&f=false)

> /iou/ is the combination of /i/ and /ou/. The /i/ in Mandarin is
> similar to the English /i:/ as in *see, sea*. The /ou/ is similar to
> the English /ou/ as in *so, no*. The Mandarin /iou/ is an even
> triphtong. In the production of the sound the jaw opens a little and
> then closes.

See the link for the picture of the tongue and lip positions.

From <http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/8>:

> Mandarin's iu sound can confuse you because what is written is
> actually an abbreviated form of "iou," a straightforward combination
> of the vowel sounds i and ou (see Section 2). Thus the iu syllable
> sounds similar to the "yo" of the English word "yo-yo," with a bit
> more "oo" sound on the end. It is written as you when it stands alone,
> and as iu when it is preceded by a consonant (for example, diu, niu,
> liu).

This being said, there is quite some variation on how it pronounces in practice. The correct way is to have an ou sound (this is pinyin notation), however quite often native speakers pronounce it as u (again pinyin notation).


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2012-11-19. Score: 2

See also [my answer](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/994/43) to a similar question.

All characters *consonant*+iu are pronounced as "ee-ow" and not as "ee-oo". So **liu** would rhyme, so to speak, with **low** rather than **few**.

So when you say:

> I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.

You are correct, this is the proper way to pronounce it in Mandarin. Certainly, using English is not exact but it gives you the idea if you already heard it.

> But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [jʊ] or [jʊ:] as in 'few'.

Who told you that is wrong. Perhaps in some dialect that's the way, but as far as Mandarin is concerned, you should stick to the original way you knew.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The similar question you link to (and your answer) was very helpful, thank you!  
> **username_4**: @username_0 Glad to be helpful! :)  
> **username_5**: `ee-ow` is indeed a good way to demonstrate the sound.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2019-04-17. Score: 1

iu sounds like you, [learning Mandarin tone is so important](https://blog.international-lan.com/learning-mandarin-tones-important/) to be accurate in Mandarin speaking world, as a Mandarin learner, I found the tones are more frustrating, is there a better way to remember which word is which tone?


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2012-11-19. Score: 0

To me, the sound would be very similar to the one in "Few".

If you look at the IPA of "iu" in Chinese, which you can find in [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin) ([iɤu], with some decorations I'm not able to reproduce here) or [SAMPA-C](http://www.d-ear.com/CCC/resources/SampaC.pdf) ([iəu], "iu" is spelled as "iou" in the document), you'll see that unlike the [jʊ] in "Few", we used [i], but not [j] and there's another (transitional) vowel in the middle.

'iu' is made up of the 'i' and 'ou' sound in Chinese. (That's why it is spell as 'iou' in the SAMPA-C document, and also in the pinyin "you".) So you can try to produce "iu" from 'i' and 'ou'. Sorry I'm not able to describe how to produce the sound literally. My suggestion, like others have made in the comment, is to listen to how natives say it. And if you can find a native, let him/her correct your pronunciation.

NOTE: The two versions of IPA came from the two sources may come from the variation of how different people produce it, and may come from the notation variations of IPA, or both.

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: @B.D I know how "liu" is pronounced, but I'm not I can catch the exact pronunciation of "Few".  
> **username_7**: @B.D I don't think the pronunciation given by google translate is very good. And the pronunciation given by google translate for the first character is "liu4" but not "liu1".  
> **username_8**: 溜 can can be pronounced as liu1 or liu4.  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2012-11-20. Score: 0

I think there are indeed some people who when speaking Mandarin with the accent of their own dialect end up sounding more like "few". For example, I think some Taiwanese native speakers sound like that when they speak in Mandarin.


---

