Help pronouncing Mandarin (pinyin)?

Question

How should the tongue be positioned for J, Q, X and how about ZH, CH, SH, R?

Answer 1

Try looking up words that start with those letters in the MDBG dictionary, and click on the pinyin to hear how they're pronounced: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/

There's a subtle difference between j / q / ch and x / zh / sh, but it's there. Mostly it's where the teeth are positioned for j / q / ch / zh / x and where the tongue is in your mouth for sh. Just try moving your mouth around, and replay the sound as much as necessary - you'll get it!

A quick tip - for the "sh" sound, pull your tongue pretty far back in your mouth (you'll have to experiment just how far back), close your mouth into the regular English "sh" mode, and blow around your tongue to make the Mandarin "sh" sound. (I remember when I first found out how to pronounce 是 / shì properly - I was so excited, haha!)

I believe the tongue position for "r" is the same for "sh," now that I think about it.

I hope that helps!

Answer 2

its hard to explain