Lily, you have a wonderful ear! Native speakers are generally not aware of how a word’s pronunciation changes in the context of a phrase, but you can trust the ears of a non-native on such matters. Normally, every content word has at least one syllable with primary stress, as indicated in the dictionary. (The primary accent is indicated with an accent mark on top, before the syllable with primary accent, and the secondary accent is indicated with a low accent mark before the relevant syllable): /ˌtʃaɪˈnɪiz/ /ˈnʊu/ /ˈjɪir/ Notice that the word “Chinese,” in addition to the primary accent on the second syllable, has a secondary accent on the first syllable. In the phrase, “Chinese New Year,” the primary stress is on the word “New,” and the primary stresses in the other words are demoted to secondary: /ˌtʃaɪˌnɪiz ˈnʊu ˌjɪir/ In addition, there is a phenomenon in English (and maybe in Mandarin as well) called syncope, that causes an alternation between accented and unaccented syllables. Since the last syllable in Chinese is adjacent to the primary accent in the phrase (on “New”), the (now secondary) accent on /ˌnɪiz/ will tend to be pronounced weaker than the secondary accent on /ˌtʃaɪ/. /ˌtʃaɪ nɪiz ˈnʊu ˌjɪir/ Note that native speakers apply these phonological processes in a completely unconscious manner, so most native speakers will swear they’re not saying what they are really saying.