I've been adding a lot of Chinese cards recently using Pinyin Tools, just because it is so useful, but I noticed that on one occasion, it is usually wrong. Whenever the character 要 appears, it always marks it as yao1, when it usually is yao4.

Any way to correct this? Also, does this happen with any other characters? I'm going to have to search through my deck and mass correct this one...

Finally, in what situation would 要 be read yao1 instead of yao4?

It's yao1 in 要求.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:Finally, in what situation would 要 be read yao1 instead of yao4?

According to the dictionaries, it's:

• yao1 when it's used in the sense of "demand / ask / request / coerce." Examples: 要求 (yāoqiú) | 要挟 (yāoxié) | 久要 (jiǔyāo) | 举要 (jǔyāo) | 要保人 (yāobǎorén) | 要盟 (yāoméng) | 要束 (yāoshù).

• yao4 when it's used in the sense of "important / vital / to want / will going to (as future auxiliary) / may / must." Examples: 要 (yào) [when it's not a bound form] | 须要 (xūyào) | 重要 (zhòngyào) | 要紧 (yàojǐn) | 概要 (gàiyào).

If you want more accurate hanzi to pinyin conversion—not only for words and sentences using 要 but any other one—, you'll need a dictionary-based parser; I don't know how Pinyin Tools works (though from your example it seems to be an example of something that isn't), but the nciku one is the most accurate free one I've found so far.

Update: I've just tested both the nciku and the Google Translate converters with the words above, plus a few more, and they both made many seemingly mistakes when the words were not common; only the Wenlin conversion ("make transformed copy > pinyin transcription") was 100% correct. The only drawback is that Wenlin is not free — at the moment, it costs $179.

要求 can be fourth or first.

zer0range Wrote:要求 can be fourth or first.

It's yào qiú if 要 is acting as an auxiliary verb for 求, and yāoqiú if it's a bound form in the compound word.

It keeps getting 说 wrong, also. Frustrating...