How to pronounce 血

[hbuchtel]

I'd appreciate some help with pronouncing this character 血 in Mandarin.

Sometimes xie2, sometimes xue4, maybe xue2 as well?

Thanks, Henry

[charlescpp]

xue4 is the official pronunciation, but most people in Beijing pronounce xue3.

[zhwj]

Previously discussed here.

[hbuchtel]

zhwj, thanks (again) for the link, pretty much answers all my questions.

How did you manage to find it? I did a search for blood, 血, and xie xue and didn't come up with anything . . .

Henry

[zhwj]

It was a search for "blood" and the results were on the third page. 血 doesn't work because the search form ignores single characters, I believe, and xie and xue need the numbers attached since it searches by complete words - xue4 pulls up the thread as the second result.

Searching is a bit of an art around here - you could always try Google, which indexes the Forums fairly well...

[kudra]

for more details of "the art" of searching around here see

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=66898&postcount=9

and it's thread.

[hbuchtel]

Thanks zhwj and kudra, there is lots of information here that I'd like to be able to access, I should get better at searching.

However I still have one question about pronouncing 血　that wasn't answered in the other topic: where does the xue3 pronunciation come from?

Until a teacher mentioned xie3 I thought there were only two pronunciations, xue3 (I wrote 2nd tone in the first post, my mistake) and xue4. I could have been hearing it incorrectly, but charlescpp's comment above and those in the other topic seem to indicate it is a common pronunciation . . . so why does it not appear in dictionaries?

I think that xue3 and xie3 are interchangeable, or at any rate many people are in the habit of doing so.

Henry

[amego]

I think that xue3 and xie3 are interchangeable, or at any rate many people are in the habit of doing so.

People like me

[melop]

I was taught at school that both xie2 and xue4 are correct, xie2 is usually used in oral. But my teacher pointed out that xue3 is incorrect, and told us not to say it like that. However, there're so many people doing it that maybe it'll become a standard later.

[amazingdido]

xie3 is usually used in oral and xie2 is incorrect.someone, although native speakers, cannot tell xie2 from 3,especially southerners (i.e me:mrgreen: ). but in the dictionary there are only xie3 and xue4, no xie2.I don't think there is any need to distinguish xie2 from xie3 when we are speaking informally.But for standard, xie3 is the right one and xie2 is incorrect:D

[melop]

I'm sorry, yeah, it's xie3 not xie2, I gave the wrong tone.

[arkuka]

oh ,dear god! chinese is really difficult ot learn ,is't it?

i am chinese,i speak standard mandarine.

here is my answer for your question:

1)in most cases,xue4 and xie3 are interchangeable,such as when you pronounce血 or 流血了,献血，xue4 and xie3 are both ok,but xie3 is more oral.and xue4 is more official.

2)but when we promounce some medicine terms (such as 血液，血浆,血流变)or some words include more than two characters （such as 血流成河，血雨腥风，抛头颅洒热血），we usually pronuce xue4 but not xie3,of course, there still are some people pronouce xie 3,but believe me ,that is so countrified ant out of the fashion.

3)quote "However I still have one question about pronouncing 血　that wasn't answered in the other topic: where does the xue3 pronunciation come from?"

i never konw when 血 pronouce xue3.i even checked the xinhua dictionary and did'n find it either.you can check here :http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE8ZdicA1Zdic80.htm

4) in a word ,xue4 goes a long way, not only because xie3 is more oral.and xue4 is more official,but also in a lot of cases we seldom pronouce xie3,but in almost every case we can

pronuce xue4