Are there any specific rules when zi is the third tone vs fifth tone? This consistently screws me up. Thanks!
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Same here!
From what I could infer based on the items I have learned so far when you have a character plus 子 for example, 村子, it will almost always be fifth tone with a few exceptions like 电子 and 男子.
The beginning Hanzi Hero cirriculum has several of those words like 电子 that are exceptions to the rule but then it seems to let up and almost exclusively follow the normal pattern in later lessons.
When you see words that lead with 子 for example 子孙 it will be the third tone (all the examples I’ve seen so far).
Will be interested to see if anyone has more definite rules for knowing which is which.
Best,
Michael
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Yes, it seems to me that zi3 is used when referring to the concept of a child. Whereas zi5 is used after concepts to “instantiate” them (e.g., 本 is the concept of notebooks, and 本子 is an individual instance of a notebook).
I believe 电子 is an “exception” because it’s actually referring to an electron as an “electric child” but I could be wrong about that.
The other exception, 男子, may also not be a true exception, but just referring to men as boys. This is how 男子 is used in Japanese – encompassing both children and adults – which is also how “boy” is often used in English. This is just speculation though.
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Yeah, that seems right, and is a good way to think about it. That’s also the case in something like 原子 “atom”, (in mnemonic terms can be thought of the smallest “child” of “original” matter that forms everything).
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