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"Bing" as it is commonly pronounced in English doesn't exist in the Chinese language. Words with the pinyin 'bing' does, but saying it means 'disease' in mandarin is somewhat disingenuous, because it could refer to any of the four inflection and the very large number of words under each of those, like the word for ice, soldier, sideburns, guests, etc.


Bing's pronunciation in English is exactly the downward inflection used for 病


Not quite:

- B- in Chinese is unvoiced, whereas it's voiced in English

- the -ing in Chinese and English are pronounced slightly differently

- Bing in English is usually inflected somewhere between 1st and 4th tone -- 病, properly pronounced, has a much more noticeable downward pitch slide

It's fair to say though that if you say 'Bing' when you mean 病, a Mandarin speaker will probably understand you.

Source: am native English and Chinese speaker


It is close enough pronouncation wise. Downward inflection is stronger in 病.




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