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There are 4 basic tones in spoken Mandarin and written Pinyin (the romanization of chinese character sounds). 1st is a level or monotone, 2nd is rising tone (like you are asking a question), 3rd is a falling then rising tone (combine 4th then 2nd), 4th is falling tone (like making a firm statment). Ex. Mēi (1), Méi (2), Mĕi (3), Mèi (4).
To give you an example using Mei of the various meanings: Mei (1) is not a word and has no meaning (which is unusual). Mei (2) can mean a kind of jade, small pieces, eyebrow, small berries, chinese plum, tenderloin, chinese ferret-badger, matchmaker, lintel of a door, coal, enzyme, the element americium, a babbler bird, mildew, millet, and can be used as a negative in a sentance or as a surname. Mei (3) can mean every, beautiful, America, contaminate, ripples, or magnesium. Mei (4) can mean younger sister, ignorant, sleeve, riddle, anxiety illness, catnap, flatter, charm, or evil spirit.
So you can see that even if you say it in the correct tone, it could still mean any number of things. However, the characters are written the same whether you referring to Cantonese or Mandarin. So you could always bring a card with her name written in Chinese characters to show people. It is only in this way that they will truely understand what her name means. Spoken, the name could have any number of meanings, but written...it will have only one.
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