Are tones in Mandarin important

 

At the onset I want to say that I want to learn to speak Mandarin the way it is intended to be spoken. I want to learn to speak it with the correct tones.

Recently, I joined a number of groups on Face Book that are for sharing experiences learning Chinese.

In most of the groups the beginners as well as intermediate learners complain about tones being the most difficult to learn in Mandarin.

Just like many other matters people just say what others have said.

Anyway, are tones as important as they are made to be? 

All languages that I know are dependent on context. This is especially so with Mandarin in Malaysia. When we speak in Mandarin, we understand each other based on context. Many times, I have heard friends ordering exploded chicken and they will be served fried chicken. The order taker knows that the customer wants fried chicken from context. 炸 zhà is exploded as in 爆炸bào​zhà whereas 炸鸡 zhá​jī​ fried chicken. One is the fourth tone whilst the other is the second tone.

Most people pronounce the second character in the word 暖和 nuǎn​huo​  meaning warm as nuǎn hé. We all have learned it wrongly or when it is pronounced wrongly, we all know what the person saying it means.

If we go to a fruit shop and say ‘wo yao mài’ (卖) instead of ‘wo yao mǎi’ (买) the shopkeeper will understand that you want to buy and not to sell. Tones will be important in this instance when you place an order with your stock broker but otherwise it is never a problem.

Many years ago, an Indian doctor friend said to a girl on the other end of the telephone, ‘ming tian wo lai jiān ni’. After the conversation I told my friend that he used the wrong tone in the word jiān. He should have pronounced it as jiàn. My friend retorted, ‘Luqman she will understand what I meant.     

奸 jiān vs 见 jiàn. Of course, my friend was right.

As such, I can’t think of any word that can be misconstrued when heard in context.

This is the beauty of Mandarin. The whole language is catered for with about 400 syllables. The same syllable (character) and combination of characters can have many different meanings but will not be confused when taken in context. If that is not a marvel then nothing is.

If anyone can think of any sentence that can be misinterpreted please share it with me.

Here is an example of a syllable.

不 bù, 部 bù, 布 bù, 步 bù, 补 bǔ, 捕 bǔ, 哺 bǔ, 哺 bū, 堡 bǔ, 卜bǔ, 簿 bù, 卟 bǔ, 埔 bù, 蔀 bù, 醭 bú, 钸 bū, 吥 bù, 埠 bù, 怖 bù, 钚 bù, 埗 bù, 瓿 bù, 篰 bù, 捗 bù, 捗 bù, 逋 bū, 逋 bū

rúguǒ nǐ yǒu shén​me wèn​tí nǐ kěyǐ wěn wǒ. Or should that be wèn?