Chinese tone rules - ke3yi3 (can,may) yu3yan2 (language) is the first pronunced ke2yi3 and the second yu4yan2? Sorry, I should have been more clear. Is ke3 yi3 by itself spoken as ke2 ye3? Is yu3 yan2 by itself spoken as yu4 yan2? So I'm asking if the tone change rule can apply within a word or only two separate words. e.g Ni3 hao3 spoken becomes ni2 hao3. Sorry I'm not studying hanzi at this stage. Thanks.