Chinese Podcast - jì de 记得 or jì dé
Lately, instead of scrolling aimlessly on Facebook I decided to improve my Mandarin. I found one excellent podcast that I am now fond of listening to.
Unfortunately like many other websites this site also pronounced many words ending with ‘de’ in the second tone instead of neutral tone.
Context
I often leave comments on websites and YouTube channels without receiving a reply. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised to receive one.
My Comment
@LuqmanMichel1 day ago
Excellent podcast. I am listening to these podcasts every day. Since this podcast is about tones I like to say that more and more podcasts and news readers in China as well as in Malaysia are pronouncing the de as in jide wrongly. The de has a neutral tone in this word. I hope in future podcasts this word will be corrected. It hurts the ears to hear this word pronounced with the wrong tone. This is similar to kids being taught pinyin wrongly in China and now in Malaysia. Many kids today can't read pinyin and as a result can't read characters. This was not the case 15 years ago. Keep up the good work. Anyone who wants to know how pinyin is taught wrongly may contact me.
Response
非常感谢您的详细反馈！您指出的“的”字发音问题非常重要，我们会认真研究并在后续节目中改进。您的支持是我们前进的动力！Thank you so much for your detailed feedback! The pronunciation issue of "的" you pointed out is very important, and we will carefully study it and improve in future episodes. Your support is our driving force!
Why This Matters
This pronunciation problem is widespread in Malaysia. Many Chinese speakers make this mistake and, when corrected, dismiss it by saying, “Why bother, as long as people understand?” I disagree. Mandarin is a beautiful language, and part of its beauty lies in having only 408 syllables compared with more than 10,000 in English.
How can a language be complete with only 408 syllables? The answer is tones. Most people think Mandarin has only four tones, but that is incorrect—the fifth tone, the neutral tone, is equally important.
Standard Pronunciation of 记得
The standard pronunciation of 记得 (“to remember”) is jìde, with de in the neutral tone (light, unstressed, and often written without a tone mark).
In this context, 得 functions as a grammatical particle, which takes the neutral tone.
Authoritative sources such as the Modern Chinese Dictionary (现代汉语词典) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences confirm this.
Official standards have not changed—textbooks still teach jìde. Yet, many speakers pronounce it incorrectly as jìdé (second tone). This error is common among native speakers, learners, and even in casual speech.
Why the Mistake Happens
Character confusion: The same character 得 is pronounced dé (second tone) in many other words, such as 得到 (déguò, to obtain) or 值得 (zhídé, worthwhile).
Out of habit, people default to this familiar reading when they see 记得 in isolation, without considering its grammatical role.
In short, native speakers often slip into this non-standard pronunciation.
Guidance for Learners
For learners, accuracy matters: stick to jìde. Careful speakers—teachers, trained announcers, or news anchors—model the neutral tone correctly. Practice with resources that emphasize the neutral tone to build proper habits.
Cultural Note
Don’t expect everyone to welcome correction. In many circles, “face-saving” takes precedence. You’ll hear, “I’ve pronounced it this way for years, and people understand.” But understanding is not the same as correctness.
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