Chinese

Noun

兒化音

1. erhua (refers to the r-coloring or addition of the 兒／儿 (ér) sound (transcribed in IPA as /ɚ/) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese)

Usage notes

Erhua is mainly used in Beijing and northern dialects.

事兒 / 事儿  ―  shìr  ―  business, matter

瓶兒 / 瓶儿  ―  píngr  ―  bottle

公園兒 / 公园儿  ―  gōngyuánr  ―  park

把兒 / 把儿  ―  bǎr  ―  handle

The above examples of erhua are not standard Mandarin, but there are some cases where erhua is used in standard Mandarin:

這兒 / 这儿  ―  zhèr  ―  here

那兒 / 那儿  ―  nàr  ―  there

哪兒 / 哪儿  ―  nǎr  ―  where

一點兒 / 一点儿  ―  yīdiǎnr  ―  a bit

Sometimes, peoples from southern China have difficulty with erhua, so, for example, they would prefer to use 這裡／这里 (zhèlǐ) instead of 這兒／这儿 (zhèr) and 一點／一点 (yīdiǎn) instead of 一點兒／一点儿 (yīdiǎnr).

In some case, erhua can change the meaning of a word.

• 頭／头 (tóu, “head”) → 頭兒／头儿 (tóur, “leader”)
• 白麵／白面 (báimiàn, “flour”) → 白麵兒／白面儿 (“heroin”)

Synonyms

• 兒化韻／儿化韵 (érhuàyùn)