# Pronunciation: 沃尔玛



## langzot

Hello, all. Can someone please tell me how to pronounce the second character in the name for Wal-Mart? I know the 1st (沃:wo4) and 3rd (玛ma3), but cannot find the second in my dictionary.

Thanks!


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## Lamb67

wo4, er2, ma3=Wal-Mart
Yes, you are right er3.

*W*hat is interresting is that I can hear say er2 in speech in Beijing.
*W*ith a number of pronounciations, the dictionary ones would sound odd.


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## Staarkali

尔是第三声
尔=er3


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## Geysere

It's difficult to pronounce two consecutive characters of the 3rd tone unless you say them a bit slower... We usually pronounce the first character of two as 2nd tone quite naturally


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## Staarkali

hehe, I didn't see that one coming  I guess as a foreign learner myself, it is important to get relevant information and 尔 should be looked up at er3 in the dictionary; however, you are totally true regarding the way people will naturally feel speaking out a company's name


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## lijiangang0571

hehe, I think both 2nd and 3rd tone are OK when speaking..In my hometown, some people even drop the second character, just like "wo4..(mumble something)..ma3"
But in standard Chinese mandarin it's 3rd tone.


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## w84u

That's a general rule: when two 3rd-tone characters come together, the first one should be naturally changed into 2nd-tone. 

Apart from several phrases like 偶尔，温文尔雅，尔虞我诈, the character 尔 has lost most of its meaningful uses in modern Chinese. But it is frequently used to transliterate some foreign names for sounds like [l], [er]  e.g. Bill--比尔, Blair-布莱尔 etc.


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## w84u

Here some examples: 老李--lao2 li3 (not lao3 li3), 老马--lao2 ma3, 很稳--hen2 wen3, 好险--hao2 xian3, 很好--hen2 hao3, etc


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## Staarkali

w84u said:


> That's a general rule: when two 3rd-tone characters come together, the first one should be naturally changed into 2nd-tone.
> 
> Apart from several phrases like 偶尔，温文尔雅，尔虞我诈, the character 尔 has lost most of its meaningful uses in modern Chinese. But it is frequently used to transliterate some foreign names for sounds like [l], [er] e.g. Bill--比尔, Blair-布莱尔 etc.


 
Some other examples:
Brands:
英特尔 Intel
戴尔 Dell
卡夏尔 Cacharel
香奈尔 Chanel
沃尔沃 Volvo

Countries:
阿尔及利亚 Algeria
爱尔兰 Ireland


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## langzot

Thanks, everyone, for all the information. I already knew about the tone sandhi (3rd tone changing to 2nd before another 3rd tone). What is the radical of 尔? I was unable to locate it in my dictionary, but once I knew the pronunciation, I was able to find it. Thanks again!


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## Staarkali

isn't the key found in 包 and in 旬？I'm not sure about it..


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## langzot

Nevermind. I found it. It's 小, of course. So obvious now.


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## yuechu

I was looking up 沃尔玛 on Google Translate today, and was surprised to find the pronunciation Wò'ērmǎ. The pronunciations are usually fairly accurate. Is this one a mistake? Do some people pronounce 尔 ēr instead of ěr (ér)?

Thanks!


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## SimonTsai

I would say it's a mistake.

I personally would actually pronounce the English names 'Walmart', 'Intel' and 'Dell' rather than any of the Chinese transcriptions mentioned above in post #9.


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## SuperXW

langzot said:


> Nevermind. I found it. It's 小, of course. So obvious now.


I don't know it at all, and I don't think it's obvious at all. I bet few Chinese can guess correctly.


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