<p>this is common in Chinese. it is called "neutral tone". some characters(个，么，着，了，etc) , when they are used at the end of a word or sentence, will change to "neutral tone": ge, me, zhe, le, etc. they will be pronounced in a brief/short way (sounds like the short version of the first tone) . Besides 这个, there are more: 看<em>着</em>，知道<em>了</em>，什<em>么</em>，找不到<em>了</em></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-05T12:54:33.987Z
2017-08-05T13:00:02.600Z
2017-08-05T13:00:02.600Z
dan
<p>Finding where "words" begin and end in Chinese is more challenging than in languages that are written with spaces, in which case we generally adopt the convention that a "word" is what is separated by spaces (major exception: Vietnamese).</p>

<p>While most <em>words</em> 词 in Chinese will be two or more characters, people often talk about individual <em>characters</em> 字. Oftentimes, <em>pinyin</em> readings are presented as a series of character readings, rather than as guides to pronounce whole words. </p>

<p>In order to learn to pronounce Chinese as it is spoken, it is important to pay attention to <em>words</em> as they are spoken. Building up the pronunciation of a word by individual character pronunciations may work sometimes, but it is easier to get a more accurate pronunciation for some word by consulting a 词典 <em>word</em> dictionary (as opposed to a 字典 <em>character</em> dictionary) or, of course, by hearing the language in actual use.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-04T17:27:10.377Z
2017-08-04T17:27:10.377Z
haksayng
<p>According to Google Translate the Pinyin for 这个 is 'Zhège' but the Pinyin for 个 is 'Gè'.  I've looked at several links referring to tone changes (e.g. <a href="http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/mandarin1/4481" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>) but nothing I can find explains the different tone given to 个.</p>

<p>Could anyone clarify what is happening here?  Thanks.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-04T13:47:22.260Z
When someone say 'mountain', he may dismiss the 't', similar circumstance.
sfy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-04T15:35:50.653Z
search site using "neutral tone", note esp. comments #1,3 of  https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/21092/does-%e8%8a%8b%e9%a0%ad-have-a-different-pronunciation-in-taiwan-mandarin-vs-mainland/21104#21104
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-04T16:05:45.227Z
It is not uncommon for characters to lose their tone in certain phrases. Surely you have come across the word 妈妈 which is pronounced māma, the two 妈 characters have different tones
Hugh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-07T12:03:09.457Z
个 in 这个 is pronounced slightly, no tunes applied. even if without 个 meanings of the statement is still complete.
Daniel Yang
<mandarin><tones>
这个 and 个 Pinyin
# 这个 and 个 Pinyin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-08-04)

According to Google Translate the Pinyin for 这个 is 'Zhège' but the Pinyin for 个 is 'Gè'. I've looked at several links referring to tone changes (e.g. [here](http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/mandarin1/4481)) but nothing I can find explains the different tone given to 个.

Could anyone clarify what is happening here? Thanks.

**Tags:** mandarin, tones

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: When someone say 'mountain', he may dismiss the 't', similar circumstance.  
> **username_2**: search site using "neutral tone", note esp. comments #1,3 of  https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/21092/does-%e8%8a%8b%e9%a0%ad-have-a-different-pronunciation-in-taiwan-mandarin-vs-mainland/21104#21104  
> **username_3**: It is not uncommon for characters to lose their tone in certain phrases. Surely you have come across the word 妈妈 which is pronounced māma, the two 妈 characters have different tones  
> **username_4**: 个 in 这个 is pronounced slightly, no tunes applied. even if without 个 meanings of the statement is still complete.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2017-08-05. Score: 1

this is common in Chinese. it is called "neutral tone". some characters(个，么，着，了，etc) , when they are used at the end of a word or sentence, will change to "neutral tone": ge, me, zhe, le, etc. they will be pronounced in a brief/short way (sounds like the short version of the first tone) . Besides 这个, there are more: 看*着*，知道*了*，什*么*，找不到*了*


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### Answer by username_6 on 2017-08-04. Score: 0

Finding where "words" begin and end in Chinese is more challenging than in languages that are written with spaces, in which case we generally adopt the convention that a "word" is what is separated by spaces (major exception: Vietnamese).

While most *words* 词 in Chinese will be two or more characters, people often talk about individual *characters* 字. Oftentimes, *pinyin* readings are presented as a series of character readings, rather than as guides to pronounce whole words.

In order to learn to pronounce Chinese as it is spoken, it is important to pay attention to *words* as they are spoken. Building up the pronunciation of a word by individual character pronunciations may work sometimes, but it is easier to get a more accurate pronunciation for some word by consulting a 词典 *word* dictionary (as opposed to a 字典 *character* dictionary) or, of course, by hearing the language in actual use.


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