Mandarin is tonal: the same sound 'ma' means mother, hemp, horse or scold depending on the tone. Here is a citable reference of all five tones with their marks.
⬇ Download JSON dataset| Tone | Pitch (Chao) | Zhuyin mark | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (high level) | 55 | (unmarked) | 媽 mā — mother | High and level, like holding a steady high note |
| 2nd (rising) | 35 | ˊ | 麻 má — hemp | Rises from mid to high, like a questioning 'eh?' |
| 3rd (dipping) | 214 | ˇ | 馬 mǎ — horse | Dips low then rises; often just low in fast speech |
| 4th (falling) | 51 | ˋ | 罵 mà — scold | Starts high and drops sharply, like a firm command |
| Neutral (light) | — | ˙ | 嗎 ma — question particle | Short, light, unstressed; pitch depends on the tone before |
Tones make or break Mandarin pronunciation. Lumi Bopomofo teaches the 37 Zhuyin symbols and their tone marks through games — free to start with a one-time unlock for complete content, no ads and no subscription.
Get Lumi Bopomofo on the App Store →Zhuyin symbols dataset → · More open datasets →
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 — attribution (a link back to this page) is all that is required. Copy the citation below:
Lumi Apps (2026-07-10). Mandarin Chinese tones. CC BY 4.0. https://alice51849.github.io/ios-app-guide/data/mandarin-tones.html
Data licensed under CC BY 4.0. You may reuse it freely — please credit “Lumi Apps (https://alice51849.github.io/ios-app-guide)”. Machine-readable copy: mandarin-tones.json.