tones of 七 and 八
paulk43
August 18, 2010 at 02:59 PM posted in General DiscussionHi 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!
lujiaojie
August 19, 2010 at 02:16 AM
Yes, 七 or 八 can become second-tone when preceding a fourth-tone word. But I never do this.
xiao_liang
September 14, 2010 at 07:14 AM
Damnit, now you reminded me again! I'm going to have to forget about them all over again! ;-)
alexyu_yxj
August 19, 2010 at 02:36 AM
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".
go_manly
August 18, 2010 at 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.
go_manly
September 08, 2010 at 09:51 PM
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.
lisaammy
September 08, 2010 at 09:07 PM
no really! 一 has more complicated tone changes, as far as i know, e.g., 一起 pronounced yì qǐ.
simonpettersson
September 09, 2010 at 12:26 PMI'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.