<blockquote>
<p>I thought each word had four tones.</p>
<p>Am I looking at this from the wrong point of view?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, yes.</p>
<p>Chinese characters represent single-syllable <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>morphemes</em></a>. They are not generally <em>words</em>, although if the morpheme represented is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bound_and_free_morphemes" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>free</em></a>, then the character also represents a word.</p>
<p>The <em>tone</em> is <strong>one of</strong> the essential properties of a Modern Chinese morpheme. Without the tone information, you just have a syllable and not a complete morpheme, so it is not correct to say that a morpheme has four tones.</p>
<p>Chinese phonology tended to produce <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone" rel="nofollow noreferrer">homophones</a> over the years, and this problem became even more exaggerated when romanisation schemes such as <em>Pinyin</em> were introduced - syllables became much more rigid and inflexible. 要 and 藥 represent different <em>morphemes</em>, although they are pronounced the same in Mandarin. To find out if homophones originally represented different morphemes, you need to trace their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology" rel="nofollow noreferrer">etymology</a>. To give an English example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The English syllable <strong>can</strong> represents two distinct morphemes:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The meaning <em>to be able to</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I <strong>can</strong> run marathons</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li><p>The meaning <em>a cylindrical vessel for storing something</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have a <strong>can</strong> of coke</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The etymology of these two meanings are as follows (taken from <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/can#English" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wiktionary</a>):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>From Middle English <em>can</em>, first and third person singular of <em>connen</em>, <em>cunnen</em> (“to be able, know how”), from Old English <em>can(n)</em>, first and third person singular of <em>cunnan</em> (“to know how”), from Proto-Germanic *<em>kunnaną</em>, from Proto-Indo-European *<em>ǵneh₃-</em> (whence know). Compare West Frisian <em>kinne</em>, Dutch <em>kunnen</em>, Low German <em>könen</em>, German <em>können</em>, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål <em>kunne</em>, Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk <em>kunna</em>. Doublet of <em>con</em>. See also: <em>canny</em>, <em>cunning</em>.</p>
</li>
<li><p>From Middle English <em>canne</em>, from Old English <em>canne</em> (“glass, container, cup, can”), from Proto-Germanic *<em>kannǭ</em> (“can, tankard, mug, cup”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *<em>gan-</em>, *<em>gandʰ</em>- (“a vessel”). Cognate with Scots <em>can</em> (“can”), West Frisian <em>kanne</em> (“a jug, pitcher”), Dutch <em>kan</em> (“pot, mug”), German <em>Kanne</em> (“can, tankard, mug”), Danish <em>kande</em> (“can, mug, a measure”), Swedish <em>kanna</em> (“can, tankard, mug”), Icelandic <em>kanna</em> (“a can”).</p>
</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p>As you can see, the two meanings of <em>can</em> came from distinct morphemes, which have merged into one pronunciation in Modern English. The meaning <em>to be able to</em> came from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Proto-Germanic</a> *<em>kunnaną</em>, while the meaning <em>cylindrical object for storage</em> came from Proto-Germanic *<em>kannǭ</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Chinese has a far greater homophone problem than English! The general idea is the same, though - if you want to find out what morphemes they derived from, you have to look at the etymology. In the context of Chinese, you would look at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Old Chinese</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>要 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Zhengzhang reconstruction</a>: *<em>qews</em></p>
<p>藥 Zhengzhang reconstruction: *<em>lawɢ</em></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T01:47:19.093Z
2020-02-07T01:47:19.093Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
dROOOze
<p>Haha, that's Chinese! </p>

<p>Use Chinese input, write zhi</p>

<p>I get 395 words to choose from, all zhi! Of course, they are not all the same tone, but a lot of them are also the same tone!</p>

<p>A long time ago I was reading a book about Chinese, it said English has about 10 000 different sounds. The book said, Chinese only has about 400!</p>

<p>An IT guy here wrote a quick program and looked at different Chinese sounds, he confirmed this!</p>

<p>You may be able to find this thread here on chinesestackexchange, I don't know how to search!</p>

<p>Watch out for that nasty virus, stay safe!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T00:14:08.183Z
So if somebody says yào 要 or yào 药, how do you know which one they mean? What about yào yào 要药 together. Is it simply contextual and you pick the one you think fits best to the situation. Isn't there a situation where you could have multiple correct possibilities, then what?
Christopher Thomas
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T01:18:48.083Z
@ChristopherThomas Most of the time there is no confusion with context. The context may not only be the sentence the character is used (though often the sentence alone is enough), but also where / under what circumstances the sentence is said, what the conversation the speaker is having, etc., etc.
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T03:56:55.993Z
I’m struggling to see where the answer to the question is. Could you clarify it a bit?
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T09:35:46.287Z
@ChristopherThomas: Did you believe that there is any natural language in the world without ambiguity? Sometimes, you should think about your own native language to find a phenomenon, and you would find the answer to your question. For example, if somebody says "There is a seal on the box.", how do you know whether there is a sea creature, or some kind of binding, or maybe a stamp, on the box? Isn't this a situation where you have multiple correct possibilities? Then what? What about "It is a long tail/tale."? "We beheld the site/sight."?
user21820
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T09:44:08.757Z
@ChristopherThomas: And since this post mentions the virus... if I ask you for a bat, I hope you give me something to hit a ball with, not a flying creature!
user21820
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-06T23:57:30.163Z
2020-02-06T23:57:30.163Z
Pedroski
<blockquote>
  <p>要 and 药</p>
  
  <p>Both of these are pronounced in the same way. In latin they are spelt Yào and Yào.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>99% correct.  When 要 means "to request" it is pronounced yāo.  Although, most of the time 要 is pronounced yào.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I thought each word had four tones.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Incorrect.  There are four/five tones in Mandarin (mā mǎ má mà ma), but individual characters are pronounced using just one. Each character in modern Mandarin has a <a href="https://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-pronunciation-guide.html" rel="noreferrer">single-syllable pronunciation</a> comprising of an "initial", a "final", and a "tone".</p>

<p>Indeed, there's only a small number of possible pronunciations of individual characters (<a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php" rel="noreferrer">listed here</a>: left = initial; right = final [and you can apply any of the tones]), so many characters are homophones.</p>

<p><em>How do we know what someone is saying?</em></p>

<ul>
<li><p>Most <em>words</em> in Chinese consist of two characters (not one), e.g., <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%A4%A9%E6%B0%94" rel="noreferrer">天气</a> (tiānqì) = weather.  There's a lot more possible two-characters combinations.</p></li>
<li><p>Many words with single-character forms <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E8%8F%9C" rel="noreferrer">菜</a> (cài) = "vegetable" (among other meanings) also have longer, more precise forms <a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E8%94%AC%E8%8F%9C" rel="noreferrer">蔬菜</a> (shūcài) = "vegetable" (no other meanings).</p></li>
<li><p>Whoever is speaking is aware of the potential for ambiguity, typically familiar with commonly misheard words, and phrases sentences accordingly.</p></li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>Usually the most confusing one is shì:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/NGp1RHrR/js.jpg"></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>是 事 市 式 试 室 世 视 适 示</p>
</blockquote>

<p>These are all always pronounced shì, and they all arise fairly early in one's Chinese studies.  But they're usually combined with other characters:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E6%98%AF" rel="noreferrer">是</a> (shì) = "to be"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E4%BA%8B%E6%83%85" rel="noreferrer">事情</a> (shìqing) = "matter"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%9F%8E%E5%B8%82" rel="noreferrer">城市</a> (chéngshì) = "city"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E6%97%A5%E5%BC%8F" rel="noreferrer">日式</a> (Rìshì) = "Japanese style"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%B0%9D%E8%AF%95" rel="noreferrer">尝试</a> (chángshì) = "to try"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E5%8A%9E%E5%85%AC%E5%AE%A4" rel="noreferrer">办公室</a> (bàngōngshì) = "office"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C" rel="noreferrer">世界</a> (shìjiè) = "the earth"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E7%94%B5%E8%A7%86" rel="noreferrer">电视</a> (diànshì) = "TV"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E9%80%82%E5%90%88" rel="noreferrer">适合</a> (shìhé) = "to suit"</li>
<li><a href="http://youdao.com/w/%E8%A1%A8%E7%A4%BA" rel="noreferrer">表示</a> (biǎoshì) = "to express"</li>
</ul>

<p>So we can deduce the meaning of "shì" from the word it belongs to.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-07T01:20:54.987Z
2020-02-07T01:20:54.987Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>Both of these are pronounced in the same way. In latin they are spelt Yào and Yào. I thought each word had four tones. So now I'm confused at how to approach things like this </p>

<p>Am I looking at this from the wrong point of view? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-06T23:39:38.333Z
They're two different words, unrelated meaning
炸鱼薯条德里克
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-09T02:22:04.400Z
Each possible latin spelling has four tones(sometimes five), but every tone matches with many more characters. For example, 'Yao' has four tones, but for Yào you have 要、药、耀 etc.
sylvia
<meaning-in-context>
Confusion about 要 and 药
# Confusion about 要 and 药

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-02-06)

Both of these are pronounced in the same way. In latin they are spelt Yào and Yào. I thought each word had four tones. So now I'm confused at how to approach things like this

Am I looking at this from the wrong point of view?

**Tags:** meaning-in-context

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: They're two different words, unrelated meaning  
> **username_2**: Each possible latin spelling has four tones(sometimes five), but every tone matches with many more characters. For example, 'Yao' has four tones, but for Yào you have 要、药、耀 etc.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-02-07. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

> 要 and 药
>
> Both of these are pronounced in the same way. In latin they are spelt Yào and Yào.

99% correct. When 要 means "to request" it is pronounced yāo. Although, most of the time 要 is pronounced yào.

> I thought each word had four tones.

Incorrect. There are four/five tones in Mandarin (mā mǎ má mà ma), but individual characters are pronounced using just one. Each character in modern Mandarin has a [single-syllable pronunciation](https://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-pronunciation-guide.html) comprising of an "initial", a "final", and a "tone".

Indeed, there's only a small number of possible pronunciations of individual characters ([listed here](https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php): left = initial; right = final [and you can apply any of the tones]), so many characters are homophones.

*How do we know what someone is saying?*

* Most *words* in Chinese consist of two characters (not one), e.g., [天气](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%A4%A9%E6%B0%94) (tiānqì) = weather. There's a lot more possible two-characters combinations.
* Many words with single-character forms [菜](http://youdao.com/w/%E8%8F%9C) (cài) = "vegetable" (among other meanings) also have longer, more precise forms [蔬菜](http://youdao.com/w/%E8%94%AC%E8%8F%9C) (shūcài) = "vegetable" (no other meanings).
* Whoever is speaking is aware of the potential for ambiguity, typically familiar with commonly misheard words, and phrases sentences accordingly.

---

Usually the most confusing one is shì:

![](https://i.postimg.cc/NGp1RHrR/js.jpg)

> 是 事 市 式 试 室 世 视 适 示

These are all always pronounced shì, and they all arise fairly early in one's Chinese studies. But they're usually combined with other characters:

* [是](http://youdao.com/w/%E6%98%AF) (shì) = "to be"
* [事情](http://youdao.com/w/%E4%BA%8B%E6%83%85) (shìqing) = "matter"
* [城市](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%9F%8E%E5%B8%82) (chéngshì) = "city"
* [日式](http://youdao.com/w/%E6%97%A5%E5%BC%8F) (Rìshì) = "Japanese style"
* [尝试](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%B0%9D%E8%AF%95) (chángshì) = "to try"
* [办公室](http://youdao.com/w/%E5%8A%9E%E5%85%AC%E5%AE%A4) (bàngōngshì) = "office"
* [世界](http://youdao.com/w/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C) (shìjiè) = "the earth"
* [电视](http://youdao.com/w/%E7%94%B5%E8%A7%86) (diànshì) = "TV"
* [适合](http://youdao.com/w/%E9%80%82%E5%90%88) (shìhé) = "to suit"
* [表示](http://youdao.com/w/%E8%A1%A8%E7%A4%BA) (biǎoshì) = "to express"

So we can deduce the meaning of "shì" from the word it belongs to.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-02-07. Score: 4

> I thought each word had four tones.
>
> Am I looking at this from the wrong point of view?

Unfortunately, yes.

Chinese characters represent single-syllable [*morphemes*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme). They are not generally *words*, although if the morpheme represented is [*free*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bound_and_free_morphemes), then the character also represents a word.

The *tone* is **one of** the essential properties of a Modern Chinese morpheme. Without the tone information, you just have a syllable and not a complete morpheme, so it is not correct to say that a morpheme has four tones.

Chinese phonology tended to produce [homophones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone) over the years, and this problem became even more exaggerated when romanisation schemes such as *Pinyin* were introduced - syllables became much more rigid and inflexible. 要 and 藥 represent different *morphemes*, although they are pronounced the same in Mandarin. To find out if homophones originally represented different morphemes, you need to trace their [etymology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology). To give an English example:

> The English syllable **can** represents two distinct morphemes:
>
> 1. The meaning *to be able to*
>
>    > I **can** run marathons
> 2. The meaning *a cylindrical vessel for storing something*
>
>    > I have a **can** of coke
>
> The etymology of these two meanings are as follows (taken from [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/can#English)):
>
> 1. From Middle English *can*, first and third person singular of *connen*, *cunnen* (“to be able, know how”), from Old English *can(n)*, first and third person singular of *cunnan* (“to know how”), from Proto-Germanic \**kunnaną*, from Proto-Indo-European \**ǵneh₃-* (whence know). Compare West Frisian *kinne*, Dutch *kunnen*, Low German *könen*, German *können*, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål *kunne*, Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk *kunna*. Doublet of *con*. See also: *canny*, *cunning*.
> 2. From Middle English *canne*, from Old English *canne* (“glass, container, cup, can”), from Proto-Germanic \**kannǭ* (“can, tankard, mug, cup”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European \**gan-*, \**gandʰ*- (“a vessel”). Cognate with Scots *can* (“can”), West Frisian *kanne* (“a jug, pitcher”), Dutch *kan* (“pot, mug”), German *Kanne* (“can, tankard, mug”), Danish *kande* (“can, mug, a measure”), Swedish *kanna* (“can, tankard, mug”), Icelandic *kanna* (“a can”).
>
> ---
>
> As you can see, the two meanings of *can* came from distinct morphemes, which have merged into one pronunciation in Modern English. The meaning *to be able to* came from [Proto-Germanic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Germanic_language) \**kunnaną*, while the meaning *cylindrical object for storage* came from Proto-Germanic \**kannǭ*.

Chinese has a far greater homophone problem than English! The general idea is the same, though - if you want to find out what morphemes they derived from, you have to look at the etymology. In the context of Chinese, you would look at [Old Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Chinese).

> 要 [Zhengzhang reconstruction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)): \**qews*
>
> 藥 Zhengzhang reconstruction: \**lawɢ*


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-02-06. Score: 2

Haha, that's Chinese!

Use Chinese input, write zhi

I get 395 words to choose from, all zhi! Of course, they are not all the same tone, but a lot of them are also the same tone!

A long time ago I was reading a book about Chinese, it said English has about 10 000 different sounds. The book said, Chinese only has about 400!

An IT guy here wrote a quick program and looked at different Chinese sounds, he confirmed this!

You may be able to find this thread here on chinesestackexchange, I don't know how to search!

Watch out for that nasty virus, stay safe!

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So if somebody says yào 要 or yào 药, how do you know which one they mean? What about yào yào 要药 together. Is it simply contextual and you pick the one you think fits best to the situation. Isn't there a situation where you could have multiple correct possibilities, then what?  
> **username_5**: @username_0 Most of the time there is no confusion with context. The context may not only be the sentence the character is used (though often the sentence alone is enough), but also where / under what circumstances the sentence is said, what the conversation the speaker is having, etc., etc.  
> **username_3**: I’m struggling to see where the answer to the question is. Could you clarify it a bit?  
> **username_6**: @username_0: Did you believe that there is any natural language in the world without ambiguity? Sometimes, you should think about your own native language to find a phenomenon, and you would find the answer to your question. For example, if somebody says "There is a seal on the box.", how do you know whether there is a sea creature, or some kind of binding, or maybe a stamp, on the box? Isn't this a situation where you have multiple correct possibilities? Then what? What about "It is a long tail/tale."? "We beheld the site/sight."?  
> **username_6**: @username_0: And since this post mentions the virus... if I ask you for a bat, I hope you give me something to hit a ball with, not a flying creature!  

---

