tonal

Everyday

1. Tonal means to do with tone: the sound, pitch or quality of something. tree →
2. A tonal language uses the rise and fall of the voice to change the meaning of a word, like Mandarin Chinese. tree →
3. In art, tonal means to do with light and dark shades of a colour. tree →

In the lessons

In music lessons it is about pitch and keys; in art lessons about shading from light to dark; in languages it explains why in Mandarin "ma" can mean mother or horse depending on the tone. Phrases: tonal language, tonal range, tonal shading.

Examples

• Mandarin is a tonal language with four main tones. tree →
• In art we did tonal shading with a pencil, from dark to light. tree →
• The piano has a warm tonal quality. tree →
• English is not a tonal language, though our voice rises in questions. tree →
• Make a tonal scale with five boxes. tree →
• The singer's tonal range is wide. tree →

Note

Adjective only; noun: tone, tonality. Trap: tonal (about tone) is not the same as total (all added together).