tones of 七 and 八

paulk43

August 18, 2010, 02:59 PM posted in General Discussion

Hi All,

I recall learning (many years ago) that 七 or 八 will become second-tone when preceding a fourth-tone word. I recently found that the native speakers I know do not do this. Am I misremembering? Thanks!

go_manly

August 18, 2010, 10:00 PM

Only 一 and 不 change tone in this way. I'm guessing that you probably extended the rule for 一 to 七 and 八 yourself. You would not have learned this.

lisaammy

no really! 一 has more complicated tone changes, as far as i know, e.g., 一起 pronounced yì qǐ.

go_manly

No really?? I DID say 一 and 不 undergo these tone changes.

What surprises me is jiaojie's response below - I didn't realise that 七 or 八 can change tone.

lujiaojie

August 19, 2010, 02:16 AM

Yes, 七 or 八 can become second-tone when preceding a fourth-tone word. But I never do this.

alexyu_yxj

nor i.

as a chinese, i don't ever know there's such usage of "七" and "八"...

i never speak "七个" as "qi2 ge4".

xiao_liang

So is it a regional variation perhaps?

lujiaojie

Just forget the change.

xiao_liang

What change? :-)

lujiaojie

tones of 七 and 八

go_manly

I thought you'd forgotten about them!

xiao_liang

Damnit, now you reminded me again! I'm going to have to forget about them all over again! ;-)

simonpettersson

Forget what?

BEBC

Dunno. I've forgotten.

simonpettersson

September 09, 2010, 12:26 PM

I've heard it from the girl who works in the local 东北 restaurant. Sure enough, the local (cantonese) she was saying it to had trouble understanding her.