<p>In this case, tone sandi plays a role. I would pronounce 医生 as yi1 sheng1 and 一生 as <em><strong>yi4</strong></em> sheng1.</p>
<p>That way we can easily differentiate them.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T14:31:25.973Z
As a native speaker, I joined this site trying to help others to learn my language. But this kind of question keep amazing me and make me realize some subtle things that I'm constantly doing without even noticing them. Yes they have the same pingyin but Dan is correct about the tone sandi. I just want to point out that when we say 一生, not only does 一 become yi4, but also it is getting a shorter duration.
Archeosudoerus
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T16:44:12.850Z
Thanks so much for your answer - whilst it is correct, in my case specifically it turns out the speed/time of each syllable is what was causing issues with my phone's voice-to-text. It is true that doing yi4 sheng1 registers it correctly, but I was having issues getting yi1 sheng1 to register correctly
eancu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T00:19:39.913Z
2022-04-11T00:19:39.913Z
dan
<p>As an addition to the answer above:</p>
<p>一 can be <strong>yi4</strong> when say 一生, and <strong>yi2</strong> when say 一辈子, although their meanings are similar. It depends on the pronunciation of the character after 一.</p>
<p>唯一<strong>yi1</strong></p>
<p>一<strong>yi2</strong>个</p>
<p>一<strong>yi4</strong>直</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-09T01:25:46.847Z
2022-05-09T01:25:46.847Z
Krahmal
<p>医生 with the pronunciation of <em><strong>yi1</strong></em> sheng1.</p>
<p>一生 with the pronunciation of <em><strong>yi4</strong></em> sheng1.</p>
<p>My suggestion is when you pronounce 医生, you can have a pause before and after this word, and also pronounce &quot;医&quot; and &quot;生&quot; with same duration of time. Like &quot;yi1&quot; (0.5 second) and &quot;sheng1&quot; (0.5 second). What I mean by that is these two characters have the same importance here.</p>
<p>In case of “一生”, since &quot;一&quot; in this case is more like an adjective, it means &quot;the whole amount of time&quot; and &quot;生&quot; is the noun, &quot;life&quot;. So the duration of the time will be &quot;yi1&quot; (0.2 second) and &quot;sheng1&quot; (0.5 second), which means &quot;生&quot; is more important than &quot;一&quot; in this case.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-12T04:10:35.997Z
This is the answer that points out the subtle difference that non-native speakers only overlook. We should advocate such answers to help learners who can (presumably) otherwise hardly learn from text books.
ALife
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-12T10:54:52.540Z
I do think undersand meaning of each caracter is the correct way to learn Chinese. But even for local speakers, Chinese is taught mainly by remembering but not uderstanding. 
Chinese grammar, lexicography and syntax are as important as vocabulary like all other languages, although I know rarely about it...
Also, simplified Chinese losts its semantic-phonetic compound meanings. I am not saying that traditional chinese is better, indeed it is more complicated to read and write. But in my point of view, the traditional Chinese carater is the real semantic-phonetic compound character.
GUO.P.JD
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-13T04:01:18.480Z
when adjcent words with same tone/accent, some of them required to be adjusted, e.g  一切 （ｙｉ２），处理（ｃｈｕ２）。Pronunication of Chinese requires 抑扬顿挫, speaker should take lowest-cost syllable to save efforts, e.g. you won't pronounce words with many adjacent 4-tone characters because it takes more efforts, you should give yourself some rest, so avoid long adjacent 'short' or 'quick' syllables, use them alternately instead.
Daniel Yang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T07:25:18.087Z
2022-05-05T12:00:11.513Z
2022-05-05T12:00:11.513Z
GUO.P.JD
<p>They have the same pinyin, but I have had an interesting issue when using my phone's voice-to-speech feature.</p>
<p>My Chinese friend can say a sentence involving 医生 and it comes up correct for him, however when I say it, maybe it's because of my accent but it comes up as 一生 even though the tones I use are the same.</p>
<p>I would get it right if I say 医生 on its own, but as soon as I add even a little behind it (e.g. 他们的医生) it would come up as 一生</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-10T15:42:45.843Z
Do both of you use the same device/phone when performing voice translation?
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-10T17:12:02.210Z
Yes we both tried it on the iPhone using the microphone key on the Chinese keyboard
eancu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-10T23:49:17.263Z
Then ask him to say  一生 and see the result :)
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T00:35:39.060Z
ASR is not perfect. When both interpretations are valid, how can ASR decide which one is the one you want?
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T04:26:55.430Z
There are many variables, not just tone or accent. Speech speed, the words before and after the words in question, whether it's a bare statement or a question also affects the resultant tone.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T07:43:13.613Z
I’m voting to close this question because this question is more about a specific ASR than the Chinese Language. A lot of things are considered during the ASR procedure, not only the pronunciation, and its result usually does not correspond to the real pronunciation. From the ASR, we cannot guess whether the OP's pronunciation is right or wrong. And getting the pronunciation correct (like all existing answers) may not always get the ASR output what you expect (which is the OP's question).
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-11T16:47:18.130Z
I would disagree that it was about a specific ASR as one of us were obviously more consistent with getting the result than the other in the same environment. This question has since been answered and I believe both provided answers are very instructive in some nuances of Mandarin
eancu
<pronunciation>
Pronunciation difference between 医生 and 一生
# Pronunciation difference between 医生 and 一生

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-04-10)

They have the same pinyin, but I have had an interesting issue when using my phone's voice-to-speech feature.

My Chinese friend can say a sentence involving 医生 and it comes up correct for him, however when I say it, maybe it's because of my accent but it comes up as 一生 even though the tones I use are the same.

I would get it right if I say 医生 on its own, but as soon as I add even a little behind it (e.g. 他们的医生) it would come up as 一生

**Tags:** pronunciation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Do both of you use the same device/phone when performing voice translation?  
> **username_0**: Yes we both tried it on the iPhone using the microphone key on the Chinese keyboard  
> **username_1**: Then ask him to say  一生 and see the result :)  
> **username_2**: ASR is not perfect. When both interpretations are valid, how can ASR decide which one is the one you want?  
> **username_3**: There are many variables, not just tone or accent. Speech speed, the words before and after the words in question, whether it's a bare statement or a question also affects the resultant tone.  
> **username_2**: I’m voting to close this question because this question is more about a specific ASR than the Chinese Language. A lot of things are considered during the ASR procedure, not only the pronunciation, and its result usually does not correspond to the real pronunciation. From the ASR, we cannot guess whether the OP's pronunciation is right or wrong. And getting the pronunciation correct (like all existing answers) may not always get the ASR output what you expect (which is the OP's question).  
> **username_0**: I would disagree that it was about a specific ASR as one of us were obviously more consistent with getting the result than the other in the same environment. This question has since been answered and I believe both provided answers are very instructive in some nuances of Mandarin  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2022-04-11. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

医生 with the pronunciation of ***yi1*** sheng1.

一生 with the pronunciation of ***yi4*** sheng1.

My suggestion is when you pronounce 医生, you can have a pause before and after this word, and also pronounce "医" and "生" with same duration of time. Like "yi1" (0.5 second) and "sheng1" (0.5 second). What I mean by that is these two characters have the same importance here.

In case of “一生”, since "一" in this case is more like an adjective, it means "the whole amount of time" and "生" is the noun, "life". So the duration of the time will be "yi1" (0.2 second) and "sheng1" (0.5 second), which means "生" is more important than "一" in this case.

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: This is the answer that points out the subtle difference that non-native speakers only overlook. We should advocate such answers to help learners who can (presumably) otherwise hardly learn from text books.  
> **username_7**: I do think undersand meaning of each caracter is the correct way to learn Chinese. But even for local speakers, Chinese is taught mainly by remembering but not uderstanding.  Chinese grammar, lexicography and syntax are as important as vocabulary like all other languages, although I know rarely about it... Also, simplified Chinese losts its semantic-phonetic compound meanings. I am not saying that traditional chinese is better, indeed it is more complicated to read and write. But in my point of view, the traditional Chinese carater is the real semantic-phonetic compound character.  
> **username_9**: when adjcent words with same tone/accent, some of them required to be adjusted, e.g  一切 （ｙｉ２），处理（ｃｈｕ２）。Pronunication of Chinese requires 抑扬顿挫, speaker should take lowest-cost syllable to save efforts, e.g. you won't pronounce words with many adjacent 4-tone characters because it takes more efforts, you should give yourself some rest, so avoid long adjacent 'short' or 'quick' syllables, use them alternately instead.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2022-04-11. Score: 11

In this case, tone sandi plays a role. I would pronounce 医生 as yi1 sheng1 and 一生 as ***yi4*** sheng1.

That way we can easily differentiate them.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: As a native speaker, I joined this site trying to help others to learn my language. But this kind of question keep amazing me and make me realize some subtle things that I'm constantly doing without even noticing them. Yes they have the same pingyin but Dan is correct about the tone sandi. I just want to point out that when we say 一生, not only does 一 become yi4, but also it is getting a shorter duration.  
> **username_0**: Thanks so much for your answer - whilst it is correct, in my case specifically it turns out the speed/time of each syllable is what was causing issues with my phone's voice-to-text. It is true that doing yi4 sheng1 registers it correctly, but I was having issues getting yi1 sheng1 to register correctly  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2022-05-09. Score: 1

As an addition to the answer above:

一 can be **yi4** when say 一生, and **yi2** when say 一辈子, although their meanings are similar. It depends on the pronunciation of the character after 一.

唯一**yi1**

一**yi2**个

一**yi4**直


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