The tone in Mandarin

There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese,and every syllable of every word is characterized by one of them,except for a few syllables which are considered toneless.This emphasis on tones does not make Chinese a particularly musical languge-English,for example,uses tone for effect-exclaiming, questioning listing, rebuking and so on. In English, to change the tone is to change the mood or the emphasis,in Chinese.to change the tone is to change the word itself.