Character: 吗 (ma) question particle

吗 (ma) is a question particle, the character is visualized as a mouth next to a horse sitting on the ground
Pinyin ma
Meaning ma: question particle for close-ended questions
mǎ: used as a phonetic part for loanwords
Radical 口 繁體字 嗎
Two writing patterns can be found in the character 吗 (ma) question particle: 口, highlighted in red; and 马, highlighted in yellow 口
马

writing patterns, not components

Chinese character phono-semantic compoundcategory: phono-semantic compound

Chinese character left right structurestructure: left right

6stroke count

HSK 1

Stroke order of the Chinese character 吗 (ma) question particle. There are 6 strokes, and the character is written from left to right

Breakdown

吗 (ma) is a phono-semantic compound character that works mostly as a particle for close-ended questions. The radical 口 (kǒu) “mouth” indicates this character is related to speech, and it also shows that the other part, 马 (mǎ) “horse,” is a phonetic component.

ma
吗
question		 kǒu
口
mouth		 hé
和
and		 liàng
亮
bright
mǎ
马
horse		 mā
妈
mother		 mà
骂
to scold

Used as a morpheme/word

吗 (ma) is mostly used as a question particle. However, sometimes it can be used phonetically to form loanwords and is pronounced using the third tone, (mǎ).

Wordlist

How to pronounce

This character sounds like ma, as in “mark.”

n/a /3rd Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial m- m [m]
Final -a a [ɑ]

Chinese character practice sheet

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