# Pronunciation: 那 (nei4 / na4)



## Leandro

Hello eveyrbody, i'm learning chinese and i've got some doubts, i saw that th character 那 can have to sounds "nei" or "na", is there any difference in their use or it doesnt matter which one you say?

谢谢！


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## Yang

Leandro said:
			
		

> Hello eveyrbody, i'm learning chinese and i've got some doubts, i saw that th character 那 can have to sounds "nei" or "na", is there any difference in their use or it doesnt matter which one you say?
> 
> 谢谢！


Here are my two cens, others may add more:

There are four tones for Chinese characters:
- flat tone
ˊraised tone
ˇ...curved(?) tone, going down and raising up very uqickly. Hard to explain. The best way is listening to the pronunciation.
ˋstress tone, going down.

那 is pronounced as /naˋ/ used to mean 'that', for example, 那個 means 'that (thing)'. 
#example:
那個東西不好.(That thing is not good.)
那本書很棒.(That book is great.)

'那...', '那個...' can also mean 'well...'
#example:
那個...我再想想.(Well, I will think about it.)

哪/naˇ/ means 'where'.
#example:
你要去哪?(Where are you going?)
你在哪?(Where are you?)

哪個 means 'which one?'
#example:
您要哪個?(Which one do you want?)
您喜歡哪個?(Which one do you prefer?)

那 and 哪 are different words and have different meanings.
However, recent years, people use 那 instead of 哪.
It's incorrect, but no one will say that's wrong these days.


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## MingRaymond

The pronunciaton 'nei4' is also correct


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## Yang

MingRaymond said:
			
		

> The pronunciaton 'nei4' is also correct


 
It surely is correct. 
If you say /neiˇ/, that is also correct.
Using which intonation will depond on the situation.

/neiˋ/ makes me associating with Bei-jing dialect, though actually /neiˋ/ is commonly spoken everywhere, including Taiwan, and is graceful to my ears.


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## Leandro

Thanks a lot Yang, you've helped me a lot 
Thanks MingRaymond!!!


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## Salpicamas

Hi every one! I'm a Spanish learning Chinese.
I've found very interesting this thread but have a question:
In the text book I use appears nar3 = 'where' and nar4 = 'there' (written on Spanish).
Is that the same that those both are you talking about?

Other question:
I use NJstar communicator as IME for writing but this additional r can not be set. nar3 => 哪 + (similar to 九 but without the horizontal strike).
Could you suggest me an other IME?
Is Windows XP IME good? Do you know how to install it or know any internet site in which I could read the instructions to do so?
Other one: Sometimes I see a word on Chinese and also I know the translation but not the pinyin: could also you suggest me some good dictionaries and any program to find out pinyin's of hanzis? When I see a hanzi I neither know how to lookup the radical, because the NJstar tool hasn't got instructions and does not work well (i think is very bad), what could I do?.

Sorry for all this basic questions and thank you very much.


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## vince

pienso que nar es del dialecto de beijing, no estoy seguro pero creo que nali es la forma estandar de decir "dónde"/"allí"


HEY GUYS, I'd like to know in which cases *那 can be pronounced nei? Because clearly na works in all cases (but the tone has to be modified), in which cases in nei possible?
*


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## MingRaymond

Salpicamas said:
			
		

> Hi every one! I'm a Spanish learning Chinese.
> I've found very interesting this thread but have a question:
> In the text book I use appears nar3 = 'where' and nar4 = 'there' (written on Spanish).
> Is that the same that those both are you talking about?
> 
> Other question:
> I use NJstar communicator as IME for writing but this additional r can not be set. nar3 => 哪 + (similar to 九 but without the horizontal strike).


 
Yes, the same.

If you want to type 儿, you should type 'er'.

Ming


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## MingRaymond

vince said:
			
		

> pienso que nar es del dialecto de beijing, no estoy seguro pero creo que nali es la forma estandar de decir "dónde"/"allí"
> 
> 
> HEY GUYS, I'd like to know in which cases *那 can be pronounced nei? Because clearly na works in all cases (but the tone has to be modified), in which cases in nei possible?*


 
When you pronounce 那兒/哪兒, we cannot say neir4/neir3, only nar4/nar3 is acceptable.


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## vince

But in all other cases, nei is possible?

Ni yao nei ge?
Wo yao nei ge

Ni yao nei ben?
Wo yao nei ben.


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## MingRaymond

According to my dictionary, 那 or 哪 cannot pronounce nei4 or nei3 when a noun is followed, for example, 那花瓶真漂亮. It should be na4 , not nei4.

It is okay to say nei3/nei4 when you say 哪個/那個

P.S. what is Ni yao nei ben? (你要哪??)


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## cherry7677

vince said:
			
		

> But in all other cases, nei is possible?
> 
> Ni yao nei ge?
> Wo yao nei ge
> 
> Ni yao nei ben?
> Wo yao nei ben.


 
yup. nei and na are interchangrable when refering to "that". not sure whether this is acceptable in dictionary, but in practice, it's possible.


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## big-melon

vince said:
			
		

> But in all other cases, nei is possible?
> 
> Ni yao nei ge?
> Wo yao nei ge
> 
> Ni yao nei ben?
> Wo yao nei ben.


 
Ni yao nei ge?  你要哪个？ Which one do you want?
Wo yao nei ge 我要那个 I want that one.  Here, maybe you should say " Na" instead of "nei"..


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## lzj

big-melon said:
			
		

> Ni yao nei ge?  你要哪个？ Which one do you want?
> Wo yao nei ge 我要那个 I want that one.  Here, maybe you should say " Na" instead of "nei"..


Cette réponse n'est pas exacte/This answer is not exact. Selon "Xinhua Zidian", la référence pour la langue chinoise contemporaine pour les écoliers / according to the Xinhua Zidian, the absolute reference, though there is no exact reference in chinese language, for learners of this language: 

那 (nei3) = 那 (Na4) + 一 (Yi1), mais que le nombre n'est pas limité à "un" seul/but the number is no longer limited to "one".
Attention ce le 哪 (Na3) s'écrivait 那 (Na3) à l'origine, voir Le dictionnaire du ministère de l'Education de la République de Chine à Taiwan (désolé je ne suis pas autorisé à poster le lien, c dingue mais c'est comme ça. si vous voulez connaitre ce dic, écrivez-moi.) Attention : 哪 (Na3) was written 那 (Na3) before, click the link above to see it on a very good dictionnary online offered by Taiwan Ministry of Education.

那(Na4) est le pronom indicatif et le pronom adjectif/is the pronom and adjectif saying "that", as in "that book" or "that is a book".

Ainsi : dans les deux phrases citées, et je le pense, le 哪 et le 那, peut se prononcer "Nei3", dans le sens de Na3 ou Na4 + Yi.  
/So in the two exemples cited, the "na3" prononciation is possible for all the two cases. 

I wish this will help you.


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## LikeBarleyBending

This is too difficult for non-natives of Chinese, even many native Chinese in the south cannot tell the difference. To avoid mis-pronunciation, always use 'Na4', nobody can say you are wrong.


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## eki_robin

> Hello eveyrbody, i'm learning chinese and i've got some doubts, i saw that th character 那 can have to sounds "nei" or "na", is there any difference in their use or it doesnt matter which one you say?



To be frank, as a native speaker, I am also confused with it. So I look it up in the dictionary. According to "现代汉语词典“ （1996）


> 哪（那）nei 3  - '哪' (na3）的口语音





> 那 nèi - '那’ （nà)的口语音


口语音 - pronunciation in  colloquial language

To make things simple, just stick to *na*


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## eidolon

I look it up also. According to "现代汉语词典“ （2002）
In the spoken Chinese, '那' pronounced 'na4' or 'ne4' ,when it used singly or followed by noun; when it followed by quantifier, you can say 'nei4' or 'ne4' ,such as ‘那个’、‘那会儿’、‘那些’、‘那样’...


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## bbb_OK

In High School in the 1970's (Hawaii) I learned the fullest distinction as explained here.  The fun part here for me is finding out why we used nei3 or nei4 so often in our lessons:  Laoshi was so strict about making us learn and use quantifiers!  Laoshi was from Beijing via Taiwan and never came to school in anything but a high collared qipao and her hair done up. (God Rest Her Soul.)


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## NextNoName

eki_robin said:


> To make things simple, just stick to na


I agree. Personally I don't see the point differentiating nà and něi.



Salpicamas said:


> Is Windows XP IME good? Do you know how to install it or know any internet site in which I could read the instructions to do so?


For this you can check the sticky thread "Resources".



> Other one: Sometimes I see a word on Chinese and also I know the translation but not the pinyin: could also you suggest me some good dictionaries and any program to find out pinyin's of hanzis? When I see a hanzi I neither know how to lookup the radical, because the NJstar tool hasn't got instructions and does not work well (i think is very bad), what could I do?.


Me too, I sometimes have problem figuring what the pinyin is. I would check a dictionary, and via the radical find the character and therefore find its pinyin. I had recommended a dictionary in one of my recent post. Please check my posts.

As for how to lookup the radical, know that each character (most of the time I think) is made up of radical and another part. You have to recognize which part is the radical. There are only around 200 radicals so it is not confusing which is the radical once you are familiar with them. In the (somewhat rare) case where a character has more than one radical, well you would have to check each radical one by one to see which one is used. There is probably a rule for this but I can't remember the rule.


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## Staarkali

As far as I know, nà/nǎ is *official *where nèi/něi is *spoken*, so its also possible.

However, nèi/něi seemed to be the shorter form for 那一/哪一 so
I'd say it should be followed by a measure word; for example, we cant say 那里 as nèilǐ and should be read nàlǐ but we can read 那个nèige， 那些 nèixiē 。。。


Another example is 多少钱 that most of people pronounce 多儿钱 which is a faster to pronounce.


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## samanthalee

Staarkali said:


> However, nèi/něi seemed to be the shorter form for 那一/哪一


 
 Brilliant! Staarkali, I think you have just solved our puzzle!


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