Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced mai
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced mai, including 买 mǎi, 卖 mài, 麦 mài, 脉 mài, 埋 mái / mán. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For mai, start on m and let it run into ai without pausing; keep the mouth moving and hold the tone to the end.
Initial m
Start the syllable on the initial m, then run straight into the final ai — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ai
Settle the final ai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (买 mǎi, 卖 mài, 麦 mài, 脉 mài, 埋 mái / mán) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound mai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
mai turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 埋 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 买 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 卖, 麦, 脉… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing mai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
6 common characters in this group.