Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced ba
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced ba, including 把 bǎ / bà, 八 bā, 吧 bā / ba, 巴 bā, 爸 bà. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For ba, start on b and let it run into a without pausing; keep the mouth moving and hold the tone to the end.
Initial b
Start the syllable on the initial b, 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 (把 bǎ / bà, 八 bā, 吧 bā / ba, 巴 bā, 爸 bà) and lock in their tones. 8 common characters share the sound ba, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
ba turns up here with 4 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 八, 吧, 巴 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 拔 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 把 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 爸, 罢, 霸 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing ba inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
8 common characters in this group.