(ma) - (particle marking the obvious, or coaxing a request) in Mandarin
maTraditional: 嘛
Translation
(particle marking the obvious, or coaxing a request)
Word origin
嘛 (ma) is a sentence-final particle written as a phono-semantic compound: the 口 (mouth) radical marks it as a speech particle, and 麻 (má) supplies the sound.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 口 (mouth, meaning) + 麻 (má, phonetic)
Stroke order
嘛
Examples
。
Well, it is easy.
，。
Do come, everyone is waiting for you.
。
If you have something to say, just say it.
，。
Do not worry, it is fine.
，。
Go on and speak, I am listening.
嘛 is a soft, chatty particle that never asks anything. On a statement it marks what you are saying as obvious or already agreed: 这很简单嘛 (well, it is easy). On a request it turns an instruction into coaxing, so 你说 (speak) becomes 你说嘛 (go on, tell me). Keep it apart from 吗, which looks similar, sounds identical and does the opposite job of turning a statement into a yes/no question.
Where this fits
Appears in 1 word
Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 嘛.
Used in
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嘛: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "嘛" ((particle marking the obvious, or coaxing a request)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 6.