The first test in our series 'Learn Pinyin and Tones - Discrimination of sounds' that test your knowledge of pinyin and the ability to recognize different tones.

In mandarin chinese it is not only difficult to distinguish tones. Certain syllabes in pinyin sound quite similar. Take as an example 知道 - zhī dao - to know and 迟到 - chí dào - to be late. To the untrained ear they sound the same but actually they have a slighly different sound. That's why it is important that you try this exercise and see whether you can differenciate the different sounds in pinyin.

How it works: You will hear the sound of a word in chinese and you have to select the right pinyin spelling from a number of options. For each question only one option is correct.