A question about Mnimal pairs

[YUNUS]

Hello guys I am new here, I have a question

In Mandarin Chinese the word [xao] means "good" and the word [gao] means "tall." Is this a minimal pair?

what is the status of the allophones

• and [g] in Mandarin Chinese? Specifically, are
• and [g] allophones of the same phoneme, or are they allophones of different phonemes? Explain your answer.

thank you so much

[Jeff L.]

As written, this looks suspiciously like the question from an assignment...

What have you already figured out or what do you think so far?

[panini]

It's impossible to tell from your spelling. Chinese has tone, which you don't mark. A minimal pair is two distinct words which differ in only one sound. Without tone marks, you can't tell.