<p>There are twenty tone pairs of five tones, with fifth tone never starting.  However I recommend minimalizing leaning on these combos too much-- a frequent learner struggle is teaching themselves to unlearn these as they hinder comprehension of regular speech that isn't grouped in premade patterns.  But it is interesting to look at and not useless.</p>
<p>If you want to hear different tones in a row you can simply look up vocab that has those orders, or type random characters into a service that will read it out to you realistically, like pleco :)</p>
<p>20 Tone pairs:</p>
<p><a href="https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/Tone_pairs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/Tone_pairs</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-02T21:22:41.240Z
2023-10-03T02:42:17.800Z
2023-10-03T02:42:17.800Z
zagrycha
<p>There 4 tones:</p>
<p>1: 5-5</p>
<p>2: 3-5</p>
<p>3: 2-1-4</p>
<p>4: 5-1</p>
<p>For improving my Chinese and out of pure interest, I want to hear all the possible combinations:</p>
<p>5-5, 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 4-5, 4-4...., I think totally 25 combinations</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>5-5-5, 5-5-4, 5-5-3, 5-5-2, 5-5-1, 5-4-5, ..., I think totally 125 combinations.</p>
<p>So I want to hear all the 150 possible combinations of the Chinese tones. How is it called? What do I have to google?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-02T22:59:59.193Z
To clarify here, "tone combination" doesn't have it's usual meaning (such as e.g. 老婆 has the (3,2) tone combination).  The numbers, e.g. 3-5, indicate the pitch, in this case a middle-pitched tone then rising to a high pitch (which represents the second tone).  The question asks about generalizing this concept, i.e., about hypothetical tones (single syllables) which mostly don't exist in Chinese.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-10-03T02:46:09.413Z
@Becky李蓓 Yeah, I totally get what OP means by changing the pitch in tone combos, but all the possible combos exist in the existing tone pairs.  Any other combos will not be valid (at least not in the language mandarin, but maybe in other unrelated tone languages).
zagrycha
<tones><listening>
What about all the possible combinations of tones?
# What about all the possible combinations of tones?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-10-02)

There 4 tones:

1: 5-5

2: 3-5

3: 2-1-4

4: 5-1

For improving my Chinese and out of pure interest, I want to hear all the possible combinations:

5-5, 5-4, 5-3, 5-2, 5-1, 4-5, 4-4...., I think totally 25 combinations

and

5-5-5, 5-5-4, 5-5-3, 5-5-2, 5-5-1, 5-4-5, ..., I think totally 125 combinations.

So I want to hear all the 150 possible combinations of the Chinese tones. How is it called? What do I have to google?

**Tags:** tones, listening

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: To clarify here, "tone combination" doesn't have it's usual meaning (such as e.g. 老婆 has the (3,2) tone combination).  The numbers, e.g. 3-5, indicate the pitch, in this case a middle-pitched tone then rising to a high pitch (which represents the second tone).  The question asks about generalizing this concept, i.e., about hypothetical tones (single syllables) which mostly don't exist in Chinese.  
> **username_2**: @username_1 Yeah, I totally get what OP means by changing the pitch in tone combos, but all the possible combos exist in the existing tone pairs.  Any other combos will not be valid (at least not in the language mandarin, but maybe in other unrelated tone languages).  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-10-02. Score: 1

There are twenty tone pairs of five tones, with fifth tone never starting. However I recommend minimalizing leaning on these combos too much-- a frequent learner struggle is teaching themselves to unlearn these as they hinder comprehension of regular speech that isn't grouped in premade patterns. But it is interesting to look at and not useless.

If you want to hear different tones in a row you can simply look up vocab that has those orders, or type random characters into a service that will read it out to you realistically, like pleco :)

20 Tone pairs:

<https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/Tone_pairs>


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