{"id":2874,"date":"2025-03-31T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T23:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:52:28","slug":"extending-mnemonics-inspiration-and-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/extending-mnemonics-inspiration-and-insights\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/extending-mnemonics-inspiration-and-insights\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-20058 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones.jpg 1120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Memory is a skill that can be practised, learnt, and mastered. By using the right method, remembering even abstract things like tones and pronunciation in Mandarin becomes possible, even easy!<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to common belief, you don&#8217;t need to be endowed with a\u00a0 &#8220;good memory&#8221; to learn thousands or even tens of thousands of words in Chinese.<\/p>\n<p>You do need constant, meaningful and extensive exposure and engagement with the language, however, which will teach you most of what you need to know.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/remembering-is-a-skill-you-can-learn\/\">To learn this effectively as a foreign adult, you also need to learn how to remember things effectively.<\/a> This is easier than many people think! People who win memory championships do so because they&#8217;ve practised, not because they were born with an extraordinary memory.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tune in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">the Hacking Chinese Podcast<\/a> to listen to the related episode (#243):<br \/>\n<\/em><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/3DJf3SHI41ZtnAIA0sqEmo?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border-radius:12px;\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n<em>Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hacking-chinese-podcast\/id1536284827\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5iCRv1jg3j3yJZGJlYVYaO\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yVP0TO0qoSo\">YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and many other platforms!<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"F9UT0g4ycC\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/remembering-is-a-skill-you-can-learn\/\">Remembering is a skill you can learn: Mnemonics for Chinese learners<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Remembering is a skill you can learn: Mnemonics for Chinese learners&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/remembering-is-a-skill-you-can-learn\/embed\/#?secret=cK6Y1Y3BWh#?secret=F9UT0g4ycC\" data-secret=\"F9UT0g4ycC\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>When exposure and engagement are not enough<\/h3>\n<p>While it&#8217;s possible to learn Chinese by relying only on exposure and engagement, that&#8217;s not always the best approach.<\/p>\n<p>The most obvious one is writing Chinese characters by hand.\u00a0Using mnemonics (a fancier word for memory techniques) to learn characters is popular and something you have probably heard of, even if you might not have tried it.<\/p>\n<p>For example, assuming that you know the character for &#8220;horse&#8221;, \u9a6c, and the character for &#8220;woman&#8221; \u5973, it&#8217;s trivial to remember the character for &#8220;mother&#8221;, \u5988, by associating the two components with each other in a memorable way, such as picturing your mum being ridden by a horse.<\/p>\n<p>This is of course not how the character came about, but by associating the building blocks in such a bizarre and memorable way, it becomes easier to recall.<\/p>\n<p>For more about understanding Chinese characters and using mnemonics to remember them, check the series starting with this article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/\">The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"S0gb4sJb0A\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/\">The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/embed\/#?secret=1C6YTB8Yhd#?secret=S0gb4sJb0A\" data-secret=\"S0gb4sJb0A\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Using mnemonics to learn tones and pronunciation in Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;re going to have a closer look at using mnemonics to remember not characters and their components, but tones and pronunciation.<\/p>\n<p>These are more abstract and require a different approach. I wrote about learning and remembering abstract things with mnemonics in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">this article<\/a>, so this article is a deep dive into tones and pronunciation specifically.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OYtM3N0XVD\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/embed\/#?secret=dmdPiybXod#?secret=OYtM3N0XVD\" data-secret=\"OYtM3N0XVD\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Why some things are easier to remember<\/h3>\n<p>Before we get there, though, let&#8217;s back up a bit and examine why mnemonics work better\u00a0to remember some things than others. To understand why, we need to look closer at the methods.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, most memory techniques boil down to associating what we want to remember with something we already know. In the case of compounds, such as the character for &#8220;mother&#8221;, \u5988, it&#8217;s also about associating things you already know in memorable ways.<\/p>\n<p>This is easy if the things you want to memorise are concrete nouns, such as &#8220;horse&#8221; and &#8220;mother&#8221;. It&#8217;s less obvious if you want to memorise something more abstract, such as &#8220;the third tone&#8221; or &#8220;the initial zh-&#8220;.<\/p>\n<h3>A general example: using mnemonics to memorise numbers<\/h3>\n<p>I can look at a number just once and remember it for at least a few months without ever using it. The process takes a few seconds and is effortless most of the time.<\/p>\n<p>I can also look at a scrambled Rubik&#8217;s cube and memorise everything I need to know to solve it blindfolded in roughly one minute.<\/p>\n<p>Now, if you\u2019re not into mnemonics or Rubik&#8217;s cube, this sounds fantastic, but if you know a thing or two about memory techniques or realise that to solve a Rubik&#8217;s cube blindfolded, and know that you only need to memorise roughly a phone number&#8217;s worth of information, it&#8217;s not as impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s assume for a moment that you think that remembering long strings of numbers without writing them down is impressive. How can we use mnemonics to memorise something as abstract as phone numbers?<\/p>\n<p>The answer is something called &#8220;pegging&#8221;, a kind of infrastructure for memory. Memorising random numbers is very, very hard without a system, so we need to create some infrastructure to help us.<\/p>\n<h3>How to build infrastructure for your memory<\/h3>\n<p>This is what it looks like in principle:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Identify what needs to be memorised<\/strong> \u2013 This could be anything. In this case, I will talk about numbers first, but I will return to tones and pronunciation in Chinese later. The important thing is to analyse what it is you need to memorise.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create concrete substitutes for what you want to memorise<\/strong> \u2013 A basic strategy for numbers would be associating each number with a person or an object. One is Neo from The Matrix, two is Tupac, three is the Three Musketeers, and so on. Naturally, it\u2019s better if there\u2019s a natural connection between the numbers and the people, as you can see in my examples. This helps with the initial learning but isn\u2019t strictly necessary.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Use the substitutes when you memorise<\/strong> \u2013 Assuming you want to memorise a number, use the people from step two instead of the numbers. Thus, if you want to remember the number 312 for some reason, picture the Three Musketeers using rapiers to fight Neo, but Tupac interrupts the fight to sing a ballad.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Refine and develop the system &#8211;<\/strong> If you\u2019re going to memorise large numbers (or Rubik&#8217;s cubes), having one person or object per number won\u2019t be enough. I have unique images for the numbers 0-99, which allows me to memorise a Swedish phone number using a chain of only five pictures. My own number is coal + coal + jackal + Tarzan + sun, for example.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This is an example of how you can use pegs to memorise numbers. In my system, certain consonant sounds are used for each number and I then combine these to two-syllable words. For example, \/t\/ is 1 and \/s\/ or \/z\/ is 0, hence &#8220;Tarzan&#8221; is 10.<\/p>\n<h3>How to use pegging to remember tones and pronunciation in Mandarin<\/h3>\n<p>This example with numbers was just that, an example. I chose numbers because it\u2019s never a bad idea to be able to memorise phone numbers, PIN codes, logins, and serial numbers. A similar system can be designed for almost anything.<\/p>\n<p>The point is that in some cases, we need to add infrastructure before we can make full use of the power of mnemonics. I\u2019m now going to give you two examples of how this can be applied to learning Chinese, first tones, then the rest of pronunciation: initials and finals.<\/p>\n<p>Note that this is meant to help you <em>remember<\/em> the tones, not <em>pronounce <\/em>or <em>perceive<\/em> the tones. These are all distinct challenges that I have covered elsewhere:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">Learning tones in general, including how to pronounce them<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-learn-to-hear-the-sounds-tones-in-mandarin\/\">Perceiving tones and sounds in Mandarin<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/7-kinds-tone-problems\/\">Different kinds of tone problems and what to do about them<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"CnfKsAY4YX\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/\">The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-hacking-chinese-guide-to-mandarin-tones\/embed\/#?secret=YzLK5ouEMM#?secret=CnfKsAY4YX\" data-secret=\"CnfKsAY4YX\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Using mnemonics to remember Mandarin tones<\/h3>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve followed the above reasoning, the process of creating mnemonics for tones is simple:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Create a concrete substitute, a peg, for each tone<\/li>\n<li>Include this substitute as an element in your mnemonic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The first step can be done in any number of ways. In cases like this, I prefer to use pegs that aren&#8217;t easily confused with other things you might want to learn, such as the components in a compound character.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, you can use one of the existing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/does-using-colour-to-represent-mandarin-tones-make-them-easier-to-learn\/\">colour schemes<\/a> to link each tone to an element:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\" data-spread=\"false\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-20058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/mnemonics-tones.jpg 1120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>First tone \u2192 red\u00a0\u2192 fire<\/li>\n<li>Second tone \u2192 yellow \u2192 light<\/li>\n<li>Third tone \u2192 green\u00a0\u2192 vegetation<\/li>\n<li>Fourth tone \u2192 blue \u2192 water<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Whenever you want to remember the tone of a character, include the above elements in the mnemonic to set the scene.<\/p>\n<p>For example, everything in the image or story is burning when it\u2019s the first tone, dazzlingly bright when it\u2019s the second, taking place in the deep jungle when it\u2019s the third, and underwater when it\u2019s the fourth.<\/p>\n<h3>Using mnemonics to remember Mandarin initials and finals<\/h3>\n<p>Even though it\u2019s possible to devise a system to memorise all syllables in Mandarin (it\u2019s actually quite easy, just create pegs for all initials and finals), I think that&#8217;s massive overkill. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dont-use-mnemonics-for-everything\/\">Don&#8217;t use mnemonics for everything<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"i5HizVxctH\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dont-use-mnemonics-for-everything\/\">Don\u2019t use mnemonics for everything when learning Chinese<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Don\u2019t use mnemonics for everything when learning Chinese&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dont-use-mnemonics-for-everything\/embed\/#?secret=TPNubaH6W9#?secret=i5HizVxctH\" data-secret=\"i5HizVxctH\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Instead, I think it\u2019s smarter to create mnemonics only for those syllables we have problems with.\u00a0Few people mix up the initials sh- and p-, but z- and zh- are trickier. Create infrastructure only when you need it!<\/p>\n<h3>Differentiating tricky syllables in Mandarin<\/h3>\n<p>Again, there are many ways of doing this. For instance, associate z- with a word you\u2019re 100% sure starts with z-, such as \u5b50 (z\u01d0), which means \u201cson\u201d or \u201cchild\u201d. Then, associate zh- with something else, like \u8718\u86db (zh\u012bzh\u016b), \u201cspider\u201d. Whenever you need to distinguish between these two, incorporate either a boy infant or a spider into the story.<\/p>\n<p>You can also create completely arbitrary pegs and use a person for the initial and an object for the final, but again, I think this is often overkill; you&#8217;ll end up spending more time creating mnemonics than engaging with the Chinese language.<\/p>\n<h3>Avoiding interference<\/h3>\n<p>Some readers might ask themselves if all this won\u2019t interfere with their ordinary mnemonics. If you have memorised \u7f8e (m\u011bi), &#8220;beautiful&#8221;, as a fifty-foot sheep winning a beauty pageant, won\u2019t it cause trouble if you also add a jungle background to remember that it\u2019s the third tone?<\/p>\n<p>If you have memorised \u653f (zh\u00e8ng), &#8220;politics&#8221;, as beating people to correct their behaviour, won\u2019t putting the entire scene underwater make things confusing? Perhaps you\u2019ll invent new characters that have a tree \u6728 beside \u7f8e or water \u6c35 next to \u653f?<\/p>\n<p>Not really. There are two ways to get around this. One is to always include the tone substitute in the same way. If the fourth tone means that everything takes place underwater, that is very different from using water in other ways in a mnemonic.<\/p>\n<p>If the first tone means that everything is on fire, fire can still be included in other ways (candles, bonfires, torches).<\/p>\n<p>Another way to avoid confusion is to make sure you have clear pictures of your pegs and use them consistently. If you think of the third tone as a verdant jungle, you won\u2019t confuse this with \u6728 if you have a picture of an oak for that character component.<\/p>\n<p>I wrote more about this in the article about remembering abstract components: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"OYtM3N0XVD\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/embed\/#?secret=dmdPiybXod#?secret=OYtM3N0XVD\" data-secret=\"OYtM3N0XVD\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Mnemonics are personal<\/h3>\n<p>Although you can get inspiration from other people, you can\u2019t borrow their systems directly and expect them to work as well for you as they do for their original creators. You might not like the way I handle tones or my example for how to separate z- and zh-.<\/p>\n<p>This further highlights the insight that remembering is indeed a skill you can learn. Study what works for others, try them out yourself and tweak your system. In doing so, you will not only be able to remember Chinese vocabulary but also learn more about your memory and how it works!<\/p>\n<h3>All articles about mnemonics and memory techniques on Hacking Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>Here\u2019s a complete inventory of articles about mnemonics and memory techniques for learning Mandarin, beginning with two introductory articles you should read first:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/remembering-is-a-skill-you-can-learn\/\">Remembering is a skill you can learn: Mnemonics for Chinese learners<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/memory-aids-and-mnemonics-to-enhance-learning\/\">How to make Chinese easier by using mnemonics and memory techniques<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Once you know what mnemonics are and how they work in principle, it\u2019s time to look at specific aspects. You don\u2019t need to read these in any particular order, just choose topics you find interesting.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/extending-mnemonics-inspiration-and-insights\/\">How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/dont-use-mnemonics-for-everything\/\">Don\u2019t use mnemonics for everything when learning Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/are-mnemonics-too-slow-for-chinese-learners\/\">Are mnemonics too slow for Chinese learners?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components\/\">How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/killing-leeches\/\">Chinese characters and words that refuse to stick: Killing leeches<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/cultivate-your-chinese-flashcard-garden-or-burn-it-down-and-start-afresh\/\">Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden\u2026 or burn it down and start afresh<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:<\/strong> This article, originally published in 2012, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated in March 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memory is a skill that can be practised, learnt, and mastered. By using the right method, remembering even abstract things like tones and pronunciation in Mandarin becomes possible, even easy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,10,12,14,22],"tags":[211,279,378,1412,389,1427,1100,456,611,639],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-distinctively-chinese","category-intermediate","category-key-study-hacks","category-learning-outside-class","category-vocabulary","tag-finals","tag-initials","tag-memory","tag-memory-techniques","tag-mnemonics","tag-pegging","tag-podcast-episode","tag-pronunciation","tag-tones","tag-vocabulary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Memory is a skill that can be practised, learnt, and mastered. 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