yin (音) — sound, tone, news in Chinese

simplified

traditional

yīn

sound · tone · note · pronunciation · news

HSK 2 笔画 9 部首音 (sound) 声调第一声 (high level) all yin readings →

~8 min read

笔顺 bǐshùn · Stroke order

部首 radical (whole character) 书写 your drawing

Click the character to replay. Press Try drawing to write it yourself.

字源 zìyuán Etymology & Structure

字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight

音 yīn is the picture of a mouth with a sound marked inside it. The early form is the graph for 言 yán (speech, itself a mouth with a tongue) carrying one extra stroke laid across the opening of the mouth. That added mark is the sound being made audible: not the word spoken but the very noise of it, the tone leaving the lips. 音 and 言 are close kin in the old script, and 音 splits off to name the heard quality of speech rather than its content.

音 is also a radical in its own right, the head of a small family of characters about resonance and rhythm. 韵 yùn (rhyme; resonance) and 韶 sháo (a kind of ancient court music) both carry it, and the dictionary files them under 音.

Three senses grow from the marked mouth:

1. Sound, tone, note. The heard thing itself: 声音 shēngyīn (sound), 音乐 yīnyuè (music), 噪音 zàoyīn (noise).
2. Pronunciation, syllable. The sound shape of speech: 发音 fāyīn (pronunciation), 拼音 pīnyīn (the spelled-out sound), 口音 kǒuyīn (accent).
3. News, tidings. Sound traveling as word from afar: 音信 yīnxìn (news; message), 佳音 jiāyīn (good news).

The thread is the sound that leaves a mouth and reaches an ear. Heard as melody it is music; shaped into syllables it is pronunciation; carried across distance it becomes news. Wherever 音 appears, listen for the noise itself rather than the meaning behind it.

构词 gòucí Word-Formation Patterns

构词规律 gòucí guīlǜ · One Glyph, Three Jobs 音 as sound / tone → 声音 sound · 音乐 music · 噪音 noise · 音量 volume
音 as pronunciation / syllable → 发音 pronunciation · 拼音 pinyin · 口音 accent · 元音 vowel
音 as news / tidings → 音信 news · 佳音 good-news · 回音 reply · 福音 gospel

声音 shēngyīn Sound & Music

声音 shēngyīn sound; voice; noise

N 名词 míngcí

声 shēng (sound; voice) + 音 yīn (sound; tone). The everyday word for any sound, from a voice to a knock at the door. 声 leans toward the source and the voice; 音 leans toward the heard quality, and the pair covers the whole field.

我听到了奇怪的声音。

Wǒ tīngdào le qíguài de shēngyīn.

I heard a strange sound.

她的声音很好听。

Tā de shēngyīn hěn hǎotīng.

Her voice is very pleasant.

辨析 biànxī · 音 vs. 声声 shēng is the sound at its source, the voice or the cry, and it is what tones are counted in (第一声, first tone). 音 yīn is the sound as heard and shaped: a musical note, the timbre, the pronunciation. A bell makes a 声; the 音 is the note that rings out.

音乐 yīnyuè music

N 名词 míngcí

音 yīn (tone; note) + 乐 yuè (music). Sound ordered into melody and rhythm. Note the reading: the second character is yuè here, not lè (happy); the same glyph 乐 splits its two senses by tone.

他喜欢听古典音乐。

Tā xǐhuan tīng gǔdiǎn yīnyuè.

He likes to listen to classical music.

噪音 zàoyīn noise; unwanted sound

N 名词 míngcí

噪 zào (clamor; din) + 音 yīn (sound). Sound that grates rather than pleases: traffic, machinery, a crowd. The opposite pole from 音乐, the same raw material gone harsh.

城市里的噪音太大了。

Chéngshì lǐ de zàoyīn tài dà le.

The noise in the city is too loud.

发音 fāyīn Pronunciation & Syllables

语义洞见 yǔyì dòngjiàn · Semantic Insight

The second great field of 音 is the sound shape of language: not what a word means but how it is voiced. A learner meets this 音 on the very first day, in 拼音 pīnyīn, the system that spells Mandarin sounds in the Latin alphabet. 拼 pīn means to piece together, so 拼音 is the sound pieced together from its parts: an initial, a final, and a tone.

From there the field opens up. 发音 fāyīn is pronunciation, the act of issuing a sound. 口音 kǒuyīn is the accent, the regional flavor a speaker carries. 元音 yuányīn (vowel) and 辅音 fǔyīn (consonant) name the building blocks of the syllable. In every one, 音 is the syllable considered as pure sound, the thing the mouth produces before meaning is attached.

发音 fāyīn pronunciation; to pronounce

V/N 动名词 dòngmíngcí

发 fā (to issue; to send out) + 音 yīn (sound). Both the way a sound is made and the act of making it: 标准发音 "standard pronunciation," 发音不准 "imprecise pronunciation."

这个字的发音很难。

Zhège zì de fāyīn hěn nán.

This character is hard to pronounce.

拼音 pīnyīn Pinyin; the phonetic spelling of Mandarin

N 名词 míngcí

拼 pīn (to piece together) + 音 yīn (sound). The Romanized spelling that pieces a Mandarin syllable from initial, final, and tone. The scaffolding every learner climbs before the characters take hold.

我们用拼音学发音。

Wǒmen yòng pīnyīn xué fāyīn.

We use Pinyin to learn pronunciation.

口音 kǒuyīn accent; regional way of speaking

N 名词 míngcí

口 kǒu (mouth) + 音 yīn (sound). The sound a particular mouth gives a language, marking where the speaker is from: 南方口音 "a southern accent," 带口音 "to have an accent."

他说话带一点口音。

Tā shuōhuà dài yīdiǎn kǒuyīn.

He speaks with a slight accent.

音信 yīnxìn News & Tidings

语义洞见 yǔyì dòngjiàn · Semantic Insight

The third sense is the most literary: sound as word carried across distance. When a voice or a letter reaches you from far away, it is 音, the sound of someone heard again. 音信 yīnxìn pairs it with 信 xìn (letter; message) to mean news or word of a person, and the phrase 杳无音信 yǎo wú yīnxìn ("vanished without a sound or a letter") is the standard way to say someone has dropped entirely out of contact.

The sense leans warm and hopeful in 佳音 jiāyīn, good news, the welcome word one waits for. In a religious register, 福音 fúyīn (literally "fortune-sound") is the term Chinese uses for the Christian gospel, the good tidings. Across all of these, 音 keeps its first meaning intact: it is still a sound reaching an ear, only now the sound has traveled a long way to get there.

音信 yīnxìn news; word; tidings (of a person)

N 名词 míngcí

音 yīn (sound; word) + 信 xìn (message; letter). News or word of someone far away. Most common in the negative: 没有音信 "no word at all," and the idiom 杳无音信, vanished without a trace.

他出国后一直没有音信。

Tā chūguó hòu yīzhí méiyǒu yīnxìn.

There has been no word from him since he went abroad.

佳音 jiāyīn good news; welcome tidings

N 名词 míngcí

佳 jiā (fine; good) + 音 yīn (word; news). The good news one hopes for, slightly formal in tone: 静候佳音 "to await good news quietly," a polite way to say you are hoping for a favorable reply.

我们都在等待你的佳音。

Wǒmen dōu zài děngdài nǐ de jiāyīn.

We are all waiting for your good news.

成语 chéngyǔ Idioms & Set Phrases

余音绕梁 yú yīn rào liáng the lingering note circles the rafters: music so fine it seems to hang in the air Lit: leftover-sound circles-the-beam. From a tale of a singer whose voice was said to linger around the roof beams for three days after she had gone. High praise for a performance, or for any beauty that stays with you.

弦外之音 xián wài zhī yīn the note beyond the strings: an unspoken meaning, the overtone behind the words Lit: outside-the-string's sound. The sense a speaker implies without saying it outright, like the overtones a plucked string sets ringing. To catch the 弦外之音 is to hear what someone really means.

音容笑貌 yīn róng xiào mào voice and smiling face: the remembered presence of someone now gone Lit: sound-face-smile-appearance. The way a person's voice and warm expression linger in memory, used above all of the departed. 音容宛在 "the voice and face seem still present" is a common condolence.

靡靡之音 mǐ mǐ zhī yīn enervating music: sounds thought to soften the will and sap the spirit Lit: dispirited music. A classical term of disapproval for music seen as decadent and weakening, the kind moralists blamed for a ruler's downfall. Still used, half-seriously, of overly sentimental songs.

记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image

See a mouth open, and one stroke laid across it to mark the sound coming out. That marked sound is 音. Follow it outward in three directions. Let it ring as melody and it is music (音乐); let it grate and it is noise (噪音). Shape it into syllables and it becomes pronunciation, the sound the mouth makes before meaning (发音, 拼音, 口音). Send it across a distance and it arrives as news, the voice of someone heard again from far away (音信, 佳音).

Keep 音 apart from its kin 声 shēng. 声 is the sound at its source, the cry or the voice, the unit tones are counted in. 音 is the sound as it reaches the ear: the note, the timbre, the pronunciation. When you meet 音, listen for the heard sound, never the meaning underneath it.