Meaning
morphine; (question tag)
Chinese: 疑问语气助词。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “ma” becomes a different word in each tone. 吗 is the 3rd tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 约吗yuē ma(neologism, attested by 2014) (slang) Are you interested? (originally an invitation for casual sex, later generalized as a playful or humorous invitation for any activity)
- 不是吗bù shì maisn't that so?
- 吗哪mǎ nǎmanna (Israelite food)
- 不香吗bù xiāng ma(slang) would be better
- 吗啡mǎ fēimorphine (loanword)
Example Sentence
你是中国人吗？Nǐ shì Zhōng guó rén ma?Are you Chinese?
你Nǐyou是shìis中国人Zhōng guó rénChinese person吗ma(coll.) what?？
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
The mouth radical 口 (meaning) plus 马 (mǎ, sound): a spoken particle — the question word ‘ma?’. Simplified from 嗎.
A way to remember it
A mouth (口) + the sound 马 — the question particle ‘ma’.
Easy to confuse with
- 妈‘Mum’: shares the 马 sound, but with the woman radical 女 instead of mouth.