The Tone Changes Rules of “一” - DigMandarin 一 (yī) 一 is pronounced as the 1st tone “yī” when it’s by itself, it works as a number, it is put at the end of the word, phrase, or sentence e g 一、二、
Tone Change Rules for the Chinese Word 一 (yī) One of the first few words you’ll learn in Chinese is 一 (yī), the one-stroke Chinese character, meaning well, “one” Another one you’ll soon learn is 不 (bù), which means “no” or “not”