Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced ye
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced ye, including 也 yě, 业 yè, 夜 yè, 野 yě, 叶 yè. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
ye is a whole syllable: glide from a short y straight into an open “eh”, all in one beat.
Initial y
Start the syllable on the initial y, then run straight into the final e — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final e
Settle the final e into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (也 yě, 业 yè, 夜 yè, 野 yě, 叶 yè) and lock in their tones. 10 common characters share the sound ye, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
ye 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: 耶, 咽 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 爷 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 也, 野 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 业, 夜, 叶… (5 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing ye inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
10 common characters in this group.