While learning Chinese, you will inevitably have to deal with the polyphone. The most famous ones are: “乐” in音乐(yīn yuè) and 快乐(kuài lè), “干” in 干净(gān jìng) and 干部(gàn bù), “似” in 似乎(sì hū) and 似的(shì de). In order to learn mandarin, it is necessary to understand the usage of the Chinese characters with more than one pronunciation.

Once there was a foreigner who was a beginner of Chinese learning, he considered Chinese people to be very arrogant after his trip to China. However, others disagreed in that Chinese people were generally famous for their modesty and humility. When asked why did he think so. He replied: “In China you can see sentences like ‘中国人民很行’, ‘中国建设很行’, ‘中国工商很行’, ‘中国农业很行’ and ‘中国很行’ everywhere in the streets, that is too pompous, don't you think so?”

Nevertheless, he has actually mistaken “银行(bank)” for “很行(very good)”. “银”resembles“很” and“行”is a polyphone，when pronounced “xíng” , it means good or okay; When pronounced “hang” in the phrase “银行”, it means bank. No wonder the foreigner misunderstood the names of the banks, polyphone is so puzzling and deceptive.

There is no doubt that polyphone is a barrier if you intend to learn Chinese well. So while learning Chinese, pay more attention to the polyphone, always remember “No pains, no gains”.