# Pronunciation: 理发 /  头发



## indigoduck

Hi all,

I watched a TVB program that taught kids putonghua and i heard something interesting.

They pronounced 理发 as li3 fa4, whereas i usually pronounced it as li3 fa1 as in 头发 which is tou2 fa1 unless that is pronounced tou2 fa4 as well.

Is this a mainland vs taiwan difference, or i've been pronouncing it wrong all these years.  I'm confused now.

If out of bad habit, i pronounce 理发 as li3 fa1, will i offend anybody because it sounds like something else XY?
And if there is, what is this XY ?

Thanks in advance.


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## xiaolijie

The 发 has 3 readings (fa4, fa1, fa0) and so I wouldn't blame you for getting confused 
理发 should be li3 fa4, and 头发 tou2 fa4 (or tou2 fa0, with fa0 in neutral tone, as people in the North would say it).

The root of the problem is the  two different characters 髮 (fa4) and 發 (fa1) are rendered as one 发 in simplified writing, so it's not easy to tell when 发 should be in the 4th or the 1st tone, unless you pause and think of the meaning.


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## SuperXW

I don't know Taiwan, but in standard PRC putonghua, 发(髮) as in tou2fa4, li3fa4 and mao2fa4 should always be pronounced fa4. If you say fa1, we'll feel that you are with a certain accent. 
In real life, some people do say fa3. This is "normal" but not "correct".


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## Achilles2011

Superxw, it's not necessary for confusing it. tou(2) fa(4), tou(2) fa(1), there are the same meaning. If fa(发) is a verb, it must be fa(1),for example, 发(fa1)现(xian4), 开(kai1)发(fa1), 发(fa1)展(zhan1)


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## mrdrx

fa3 is a noun  fa1 is verb

both 头发 and 理发 are pronounced as fa3


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## xiaolijie

mrdrx said:


> fa3 is a noun  fa1 is verb
> 
> both 头发 and 理发 are pronounced as fa3


发 can be pronounced as *fa*0, *fa1*, *fa4*, but not *fa3 *.


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## Youngfun

I think fa3 is a common regional/dialect-influenced pronunciation in Mainland China, as in 头发，理发，发型, (especially the last one, I heard it very often) whenever it has something to do with (head) hair.

But the standard pronunciation of hair is fa4.


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## mrdrx

xiaolijie said:


> 发 can be pronounced as *fa*0, *fa1*, *fa4*, but not *fa3 *.



yes.thank you for correcting me . fa4 replace fa3 in my last post


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## Youngfun

But I think it's strange if you learned Chinese in Taiwan and confuse fa1 and fa4.
In Taiwan fa1 is written 發 while fa4 is written 髮。They are clearly distinguished in writing, so this should avoid the confusion that Simplified Chinese may create.

By the way, TVB is from Hong Kong. So in Hong Kong many people are learning putonghua?


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## BODYholic

Youngfun said:


> I think fa3 is a common regional/dialect-influenced pronunciation in Mainland China, as in 头发，理发，发型, (especially the last one, I heard it very often) whenever it has something to do with (head) hair.



Many of our country folks pronounced fa3 (as in 头发) too. Of course, this does not make it any more right. In fact, Nicku has an deliberate entry just to emphasize that the word should not be pronounced as fa3. So, this goes to show how serious the problem is among native Chinese speakers.


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## viajero_canjeado

髮 is pronounced fa3 in Taiwan. This allows for fun puns like a barber shop I've seen named the 麗髮院。 (Can you guess what it's a play on?)
I don't know if the variant pronunciation should be classified as a problem or just a peculiar difference, but speaking of which, BODYholic, you might be interested to know that the 法 in 法國 (not 文法, though) is usually pronounced as fa4 here! Kind of a turn of the tables.. fa4 turns into fa3 and fa3 turns into fa4, hehe.


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## Youngfun

Yes I know that 法国 is fa4 in Taiwan, due to the fact that Taiwanese adopted the pronunciation of the ancient Beijing dialect. So 法语 is also fa4

Then maybe fa3 for 髮 is also standard in Taiwan?
It's very common in mainland too


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## Ali Smith

My dictionary gives tóufa as the standard pronunciation for 头发. However, in Taiwan the standard pronunciation for it is tóufǎ (with the last syllable pronounced with the third tone). I have never heard anyone from the mainland pronounce 头发 with the third tone for 发; it's always the neutral tone.


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## SimonTsai

Youngfun said:


> Yes I know that 法国 is fa4 in Taiwan [...]. So 法语 is also fa4


You are right that it is typically the fourth, but in the word '法國', the third is equally possible.


> Then maybe fa3 for 髮 is also standard in Taiwan?


The third tone is the only possible pronunciation here, and, if you are typing with Microsoft Bopomofo, you will not be able to get the character with the fourth entered.


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