i vs e

f1b1
 May 15, 2007 at 08:14 AM posted in General Discussion

I'm having a little difficulty in hearing the difference between si4 and se4. Can someone tell me what the difference is please?

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f1b1
 May 16, 2007 at 02:31 AM

Thank you. That helped a great deal. :)

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trevelyan
 May 16, 2007 at 02:10 AM

Have you tried comparing the sounds of the two in multiple-character compounds. Here are two - huang2se4 (colour) and si4 sui4 (four years old):

http://s3.amazonaws.com/chinesepod/glossary/si4_sui4.mp3

http://s3.amazonaws.com/chinesepod/glossary/huang2se4.mp3

I think sometimes southerners don't make as strong a distinction between them as northerners do.