city – chung shih

Written as chéngshì or chengshi

To remember that city is pronounced chung shih (chengshi) in Mandarin Chinese, use the following mnemonic:

He bought the whole city with a huge chunk of gold carried by a ship (chung shih).

Tones

1. Chung (chunk) is a 2nd tone with / as an accent.

Associate chunk, a 2nd tone, with a balloon filled with helium or anything that goes up. See Tones and Mnemonics.

The chunk of rock was blasted into the air.

2. Shih (ship) is a 4th tone with \ as an accent.

Associate ship, a 4th tone, with lowering things like trip or slide down. See Tones and Mnemonics.

The ship fell out of the sky.

Remember

chung = 2nd tone = /

Shih = 4th tone = \