<p>To be native,</p>

<p>for Mandarin Chinese speakers, the most difficult is tongue rolling heavy gesture, which defacto necessary.</p>

<p>for Yue Chinese, the most difficult is its variety of tones over every languages.</p>

<p>Hardiest is Yue Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-15T17:39:09.157Z
2014-05-30T22:30:52.373Z
2014-05-30T22:30:52.373Z
Rony
<p>Not sure about research</p>

<p>From experience the sounds that people have the most issues with are:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>the "r" sound when used at the beginning of a word. Best examples are 热 (re) and 日 (ri).</p></li>
<li><p>differentiating between zh &amp; j, sh &amp; x, ch &amp; q.</p></li>
<li><p>the ü sound as in 魚 fish (I think that is the one you mentioned).</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-31T02:15:30.170Z
To be fair, plenty of Chinese people don't differentiate s and sh, and Chongqing people pronounce 'r-' as a voiced 's-' (IPA's [z], not pinyin's z). 如果 = zu guo.
dda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-02T01:21:01.533Z
I have found in the case of differentiating s and sh that tone seems to play a lot more importance.  If you look at the obious example of 4 and 10 si[4] and shi[2] you can say si[2] for ten and they will understand with no problem, because they seem to listen for the tone more than the actual sound.
Matthew Dolman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-06-03T14:12:37.870Z
For most of our English-speaker students, "r" is really hard. Our rule of thumb for our students to acquire it naturally is listen, imitate and practice, but not refer to any sounds in English, which would be confusing and sometimes misleading. After all English sounds and Chinese sounds are quite different in many ways!
ChineseHulu.com
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-14T20:40:10.707Z
You're right about `r`, I remember having trouble with that as well
Michael Robinson
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2012-05-14T21:16:53.057Z
I'd add z/c/s as well :). A friend of mine who is learning Mandarin has a lot of trouble even differentiating between them.
deutschZuid
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2012-05-15T20:23:17.297Z
@JamesJiao yes this is true - in first year I remember a lot of people just couldn't tell. Also s/sh
Michael Robinson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-14T13:52:36.033Z
2014-05-31T03:49:53.507Z
2014-05-31T03:49:53.507Z
Matthew Dolman
<p>When I was first learning Chinese, I found the <code>e4 - 饿</code> &amp; <code>ü3/ü4 - 女/绿</code> sounds to be the most problematic.</p>

<p>Has there been any research into this? If so, what sounds are generally the most problematic sounds for an initially monolingual English speaker to learn when studying Chinese?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-31T03:00:36.097Z
@gonnastop If you are familiar with British English, you can use the FUR vowel in Received Pronunciation as a substitute for 饿...
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-05-31T03:46:54.867Z
For me it's more a problem of distinguishing sounds in speech than reproducing individual sounds in isolation. Especially the ones that sound like English's *schwa*. Other people have more trouble with unaspirated consonants. Also it depends whether you regard tones to be sounds.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-14T10:24:28.723Z
Thanks, but I'm asking about people who can initially speak only English who are learning Mandarin.
Michael Robinson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-14T16:25:32.007Z
俄 is e2, and 女 nv3 绿 lv4.
gonnastop
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-14T20:38:52.190Z
My bad, I meant `饿`
Michael Robinson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-15T17:41:37.750Z
these should be 餓 for hungry and 綠 for green.
Rony
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-05-15T20:22:20.980Z
@Rony simplified hungry = 饿, simplified green = 绿
Michael Robinson
<pronunciation>
What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce?
# What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-05-14)

When I was first learning Chinese, I found the `e4 - 饿` & `ü3/ü4 - 女/绿` sounds to be the most problematic.

Has there been any research into this? If so, what sounds are generally the most problematic sounds for an initially monolingual English speaker to learn when studying Chinese?

**Tags:** pronunciation

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks, but I'm asking about people who can initially speak only English who are learning Mandarin.  
> **username_3**: 俄 is e2, and 女 nv3 绿 lv4.  
> **username_0**: My bad, I meant `饿`  
> **username_4**: these should be 餓 for hungry and 綠 for green.  
> **username_0**: @username_4 simplified hungry = 饿, simplified green = 绿  
> **username_1**: @username_3 If you are familiar with British English, you can use the FUR vowel in Received Pronunciation as a substitute for 饿...  
> **username_2**: For me it's more a problem of distinguishing sounds in speech than reproducing individual sounds in isolation. Especially the ones that sound like English's *schwa*. Other people have more trouble with unaspirated consonants. Also it depends whether you regard tones to be sounds.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2012-05-14. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

Not sure about research

From experience the sounds that people have the most issues with are:

* the "r" sound when used at the beginning of a word. Best examples are 热 (re) and 日 (ri).
* differentiating between zh & j, sh & x, ch & q.
* the ü sound as in 魚 fish (I think that is the one you mentioned).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: You're right about `r`, I remember having trouble with that as well  
> **username_8**: I'd add z/c/s as well :). A friend of mine who is learning Mandarin has a lot of trouble even differentiating between them.  
> **username_0**: @JamesJiao yes this is true - in first year I remember a lot of people just couldn't tell. Also s/sh  
> **username_6**: To be fair, plenty of Chinese people don't differentiate s and sh, and Chongqing people pronounce 'r-' as a voiced 's-' (IPA's [z], not pinyin's z). 如果 = zu guo.  
> **username_5**: I have found in the case of differentiating s and sh that tone seems to play a lot more importance.  If you look at the obious example of 4 and 10 si[4] and shi[2] you can say si[2] for ten and they will understand with no problem, because they seem to listen for the tone more than the actual sound.  
> **username_7**: For most of our English-speaker students, "r" is really hard. Our rule of thumb for our students to acquire it naturally is listen, imitate and practice, but not refer to any sounds in English, which would be confusing and sometimes misleading. After all English sounds and Chinese sounds are quite different in many ways!  

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### Answer by username_4 on 2012-05-15. Score: 2

To be native,

for Mandarin Chinese speakers, the most difficult is tongue rolling heavy gesture, which defacto necessary.

for Yue Chinese, the most difficult is its variety of tones over every languages.

Hardiest is Yue Chinese.


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