system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Since Chinese is a tonal language how can song lyrics be written? Wouldn't it be affected by the pitch of melody and tone?
gpt
In most Chinese music the tones are just omitted. The lyrics of the song can be understood without tones through context. The singer just follows the melody and does not change it based on tones.
Although tones are an important part of Chinese language, it can still be understood most of the time without the use of tones.