: Mandarin is tonal. Changing the tone of a word changes its meaning entirely. A basic guide will explain: First Tone : High and level (ā) Second Tone : Rising (á) Third Tone : Falling-rising (ǎ) Fourth Tone : Sharp falling (à) Neutral Tone : Some syllables are light and toneless. 2. Essential Vocabulary & Greetings

: The official Romanization system used to represent Chinese sounds [20, 24]. Every syllable has three parts: an initial (consonant), a final (vowel), and a tone [20, 21].