Yes, Chinese is one of what they call a “tonal” languages where a change tone and/or pitch, not just the base sound, can change the meaning.
On the other hand, people who grow up as speakers of a tonal language will, a lot more frequently then others, develop “perfect pitch” or near perfect pitch; as their hearing practices in their language have required greater appreciation of, and greater recognition of tone and pitch. Thus that recognition becomes more highly developed.
I once tried learning spoken Chinese (Mandarin). Gave it up.
The Chinese word for “miss”, as in young lady (Xiao jie) -— if said in a different tone, is not a nice word.
There is a classic set of phrases using the word “ma”. “Ma ma qui ma, ma man, ma ma ma”, When translated it reads -— “Mother rides the horse. Horse slow. Mother scolds horse”.
Fascinating language!!