Pinyin final: "e2"

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Mouth Mechanics (step-by-step)

1. Relax your jaw slightly open (not wide; about the height of a finger).
2. Keep your lips neutral: no smile, no rounding like “oo.”
   • Imagine your lips are “resting,” not helping.
3. Pull the tongue body slightly back in the mouth.
   • The tongue should feel retracted compared to the vowel in English bed.
4. Lower the middle of the tongue so the sound is neither “ee” nor “ay.”
   • Aim for a plain, central/back “uh” quality.
5. Keep the tongue tip relaxed (it can rest behind the bottom front teeth).
   • Don’t curl it up unless the initial requires it (like zh- / sh-).
6. Make the vowel “pure”: hold one steady vowel quality—don’t glide into another vowel at the end.
7. Add Tone 2: start mid and rise to high.
   • Say the vowel first correctly, then add the rise.

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English Approximation (and how to adjust it)

This exact vowel is not a standard English vowel in most accents, but you can get very close by modifying familiar sounds:

1. “duh” (the uh in duh)
   • Use the vowel in duh, but pull it slightly farther back and keep the lips more neutral (English uh often drifts forward or becomes “colored”).
2. “the” (the vowel in the when unstressed: thuh)
   • Use the uh sound, but make it clearer and more held, not reduced or mumbled.
3. “sun” (the vowel in sun)
   • Start from that vowel, then move the tongue a bit back and avoid spreading the lips.

Key adjustment for English speakers: English “uh” is often lazy/reduced and can pick up extra coloring. For e2, make it steady, clean, and slightly back—like a carefully “placed” uh.

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Common Mistakes (what to avoid)

• Don’t say “eh” (like bed). That’s too front and too open.
• Don’t say “er” / “ur” (like her in many American accents).
  • That English sound is R-colored; Chinese e2 should have no “r” taste.
• Don’t turn it into a diphthong (like uh-oo or uh-eh). Keep one stable vowel.
• Don’t round your lips (no “o” shape). Lip rounding will pull it toward an “o/u” quality.
• Don’t lose the rise: Tone 2 must clearly rise; many learners keep it flat.

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Practice Pairs (visualizing the target)

These English words are approximations to cue the mouth shape. Match only the vowel part shown.

Pinyin (Tone 2)	Closest English cue	What to copy from English
e2	duh	the “uh” vowel, but held steady and slightly back
de2	duh	d + “uh” (then add a rising tone)
ne2	nun	the “uh” vowel (keep lips neutral; add rise)
ge2	guh	g + “uh” with a clean, steady vowel
ke2	k in skate + uh	a clean k then the steady “uh” vowel (no extra glide)
he2	huh	the “uh” vowel (avoid rounding toward “ho”)
zhe2	judge (vowel only)	the central vowel quality, but keep it pure and add Tone 2
she2	shush (first vowel)	the “uh”-like vowel after “sh” (no rounding)
ze2	suds (vowel only)	the central “uh” vowel quality

Note: English cues vary by accent. Use them as a mouth-shape reminder, not as an exact match.

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Comparisons & caveats (similar Pinyin sounds you must not confuse)

A) Two different “e” spellings in Pinyin can hide two different vowel targets

In the Marilyn Method, some syllables spelled with -e- are pronounced with a back “uh” quality (like e2, de2, ge2, he2, zhe2, she2, ze2)—while others spelled with -ie- / -e- after y/j/q/x are a clear “ye/eh”-type vowel (like bie2, die2, jie2, xie2, ye2, nie2) or a rounded front glide + “eh” (like jue2, xue2, que2).

Practical rule:
- e2 after d/n/g/k/h/zh/sh/z → think steady back “uh” (clean, unrounded).
- -ie- / ye- (bie2, xie2, ye2, etc.) → starts with a “y” glide and has a more front “eh” quality.
- -ue- / -üe- (jue2, xue2, que2) → starts with rounded lips (like a tight “yoo” shape without the “oo” sound), then goes to “eh.”

B) e2 vs. “o” (as in bo, po, mo, fo)

• e2 (ɤ with Tone 2) is unrounded and more central/back.
• o is typically more rounded and feels more “open” toward an “aw/oh” region depending on the syllable.

If your lips are rounding, you’re drifting away from e2.

C) e2 vs. “er2” (the rhotic vowel)

• er2 has a strong R-color and tongue curling/retraction that creates an “r” resonance.
• e2 should sound clean with no r-like quality.

D) Tone caveat: Tone 2 must ride on the vowel without changing the vowel

Many English speakers “help” the rising tone by changing the vowel quality (turning it into an “eh” or “ay”). Keep the vowel stable and let only the pitch rise.

Quick self-check

If you can hold e2 steadily on one vowel (no glide), with neutral lips, and then add a clear mid-to-high rise, you are producing the core sound correctly for e2 (and for de2 / ne2 / ge2 / ke2 / he2 / zhe2 / she2 / ze2).