Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced mian
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced mian, including 面 miàn, 免 miǎn, 棉 mián, 眠 mián, 勉 miǎn. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
mian joins the initial m to the final ian in one motion — say it as a single Mandarin beat with the tone over it, not as English letters in a row.
Initial m
Start the syllable on the initial m, then run straight into the final ian — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ian
Settle the final ian into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (面 miàn, 免 miǎn, 棉 mián, 眠 mián, 勉 miǎn) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound mian, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
mian turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 棉, 眠, 绵 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 免, 勉 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 面 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing mian inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
6 common characters in this group.