Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced long
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced long, including 龙 lóng, 弄 nòng / lòng, 隆 lōng / lóng, 笼 lóng, 垄 lǒng. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say long, lead with the initial l, then flow without a break into the final ong, holding the tone across the whole syllable.
Initial l
Start the syllable on the initial l, then run straight into the final ong — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ong
ong sounds close to “ung”, not English “ong”.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (龙 lóng, 弄 nòng / lòng, 隆 lōng / lóng, 笼 lóng, 垄 lǒng) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound long, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
long turns up here with 4 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 隆 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 龙, 笼 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 垄, 拢 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 弄 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing long inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
6 common characters in this group.