Penang Hokkien for Beginners Lesson 3: Intonation
Today Hock Seng is teaching his friend Alex the tones of Penang Hokkien. Penang Hokkien, being a dialect of the Hokkien language, is a tonal language. That means, every word needs to be pronounced at the right tone to make sense. A different tone may denote a different meaning. This is a lesson which Alex dreaded, as he is totally unfamiliar with tones, since English isn't a tonal language. However, he will do his best to learn.
Lesson 3: Intonation (AI generated on 31 October 2025)
Words - or to be exact, syllables - in Penang Hokkien, based on latest learning methods, can be divided into five different tones. (Traditional learning methods divided to seven tones, but the seven include differing syllable ends rather than true tones.) To speak Penang Hokkien properly, one only needs to learn the five tones. And in fact, it is not five tones but only four different tones, because two of the tones happen to sound the same; they are regarded as two different tones because they behalf differently (and that will be explained in the following lesson).
To make learning even easier, the four different tones are mapped to correspond to the four different tones in Mandarin. (Therefore those with some knowledge of Mandarin, especially as spoken in Malaysia, will have a big advantage in learning Penang Hokkien. Similarly, those who know music might also have an advantage, as they are more sensitive to tones). To make it easy to recognise which tone is which, they are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Every syllable, whether meaningful or meaningless, can be uttered in any of the four tones, and the tone number is placed following the syllable, like this: pa1 
, ti2 , lam3 , teng4 , mua1 , etc.
To facilitate learning, the four tones are sequenced to a four-tone pattern which you must familiarize yourself to. Any syllable can be sequenced into the four-tone pattern, whether the syllable carries any meaning or not.
ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4
ti1, ti2, ti3, ti4
lang1, lang2, lang3 lang4
sng1, sng2, sng3, sng4
It is absolutely crucial that you learn to differentiate each syllable by its tone number, and is able to pronounce it to the right tone. A good way to learn is to master the four-tone pattern, and repeat it to yourself using various syllables of your choice. You can even intone words in English.
boy1, boy2, boy3, boy4
dog1, dog2, dog3, dog4
soup1, soup2, soup3 soup4
So when you encounter a syllable with a tone number, you can run that syllable through the four-tone pattern to ascertain which tone that syllable should be pronounced. See if you are able to pronounce the following syllables in their right tone.
mu2
tang3
gin1
lung4
Exercise
1. Pronounce the following sets of syllables:
sa1, sa2, sa3, sa4
tua1, tua2, tua3, tua4
beng1, beng2, beng3, beng4
kim1, kim2, kim3, kim4
2. Now pronounce the following syllables according to the indicated tone number:
lau2
knua1
sua4
jip1
Continue to practise intonation by stringing any syllable into the four-tone pattern set and say it aloud to get accustomed to the tones.
Penang Hokkien for Beginners Lessons
- Lesson 1: Greetings
- Lesson 2: What is your name?
- Lesson 3: Intonation
- Lesson 4: What is your job?
- Lesson 5: Where do you live?
- Lesson 6: Tone Sandhi
- Lesson 7: How do you come here?
- Lesson 8: Counting from 1 to 100
- Lesson 9: Counting money
- Lesson 10: How much is this?
- Lesson 11: What time is it?
- Lesson 12: How long does it take?
- Lesson 13: How far is it?
Have a question?
If you have a question about Penang Hokkien or this lesson, pose the question in the Learn Penang Hokkien Facebook Group and I will answer you there.