Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced a

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced a, including 阿 ā / à / a / ē, 啊 ā / á / ǎ / à / a, 呵 hē / ā. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say a, begin on the vowel sound a itself, hold its shape, and lay the tone over it; there is no initial to add.

Initial a

Start the syllable on the initial a, then run straight into the final a — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.

Final a

Settle the final a into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (阿 ā / à / a / ē, 啊 ā / á / ǎ / à / a, 呵 hē / ā) and lock in their tones. 3 common characters share the sound a, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

a turns up here with 1 different tone; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 阿, 啊, 呵 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

阿ā / à / a / ēan initial particle; prefix to names of people; (phonetic character); (final part.); (interj.); flatter 啊ā / á / ǎ / à / a(interj.); ah; an interjection; to express doubt or to question; to show realization; to stress 呵hē / ā(phonetic particle); expel breath; my goodness

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing a inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

阿姨ā yímaternal aunt; step-mother; childcare worker; nursemaid 阿们ā men(loanword) amen 阿家ā gūhusband's mother 天啊tiān agood heavens!; oh my God!啊呀ā yāinterjection of surprise; Oh my!啊哟ā yointerjection of surprise or pain; Oh; Ow; My goodness!呵护hē hùto bless; to cherish; to take good care of; to conserve 呵责hē zéto abuse; to berate 呵喝hē hèto shout loudly; to bellow; to berate

Characters

3 common characters in this group.

Character#1 阿 ā / à / a / ēan initial particle; prefix to names of people; (phonetic character); (final part.); (interj.); flatterTraditional: 阿 Character#2 啊 ā / á / ǎ / à / a(interj.); ah; an interjection; to express doubt or to question; to show realization; to stressTraditional: 啊 Character#3 呵 hē / ā(phonetic particle); expel breath; my goodnessTraditional: 呵