From what I can tell, Chinese will often drop tones, just as English will drop vowels (substituting most vowels for a schwa - a kind of "e" or "uh" sound) if the meaning is not too ambiguous.<p>People who learn Chinese often fret about getting the tones right. The tones just aren't that important - Chinese speakers can generally guess the meaning, though they will think you sound like a 4-year-old if you don't pronounce tones correctly. IMO, getting the vowels and consonants right is harder (and more important).<p>Seriously, here's the pairs you will confuse:<p>d / t - d is unaspirated<p>j / zh - j is a "cjsch" sound (a bit like "A<i>s</i>ia") while zh is a "j" sound<p>q / ch - q is a "bright" (slightly whistled?) ch; ch is a "dark" ch)<p>x / sh - x is a "bright" sh and sh is a "dark" sh<p>c / s - c is a "ts", s is just s<p>b / p - b can sound a little closer to p than in English and p is more aspirated<p>g / k - g sounds a little close to k, while k is more aspirated<p>Then there's the vowels, which are really hard. Learning four tones is comparatively easy.<p>If you don't get the consonants almost 100% correct, people will simply not be able to tell what you are saying. If you don't use tones, they can usually understand, as long as you use simple words (which face it, you will).