Character: 妈 (mā) mother

妈 (mā) means mother, the character is visualized as a woman standing next to a horse

A woman and a horse

 

Pinyin mā
Meaning mother; mom
Radical 女 繁體字 媽
Two writing patterns can be found in the character 妈 (mā) mother: 女, highlighted in red; and 马, highlighted in yellow 女
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 妈 (mā) mother. There are 6 strokes, and the character is written from left to right

Breakdown

妈 (mā) “mother” consists of two parts, 女 (nǚ) “woman” and 马 (mǎ) “horse.” 女 (nǚ) is the radical of this character, and it indicates the character is used for female humans. The other component on the right, 马 (mǎ), plays a phonetic role.

mā
妈
mother		 nǚ
女
woman		 qī
妻
wife		 xìng
姓
surname
mǎ
马
horse		 mǎ
码
number		 xùn
驯
to tame

Used as a morpheme/word

妈 (mā) “mother” is mainly used as a word, but it can be reduplicated as 妈妈 (māma).

Wordlist

How to pronounce

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

1st Pinyin Yale IPA
Initial m- m [m]
Final -a a [ɑ]

Chinese character practice sheet

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