Kilo Lingo

(me) - (question particle, softening) in Mandarin

me

Traditional: 麼

Line drawing of 么
Coloured illustration of 么
HSK 2
#259 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

(question particle, softening)

Word origin

么 (me) is a question and softening particle, the simplified form of 麼. It derives from 麼 (má/me) and is used in words such as 什么 'what' and 怎么 'how'. The simplified 么 is essentially the phonetic component of the fuller character standing alone.

Origin
phono-semantic compound
Root
simplified reduction of 麼 (má, phonetic 幺)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 么

么

Examples

？

What are you doing?

？

So difficult?

？

What's wrong with you?

，？

What's wrong, my friend?

？

What does this mean?

么 (me) means (question particle, softening). It is used as a particle in everyday Mandarin speech.

Appears in 17 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 么.

什么shén mewhat什么shénmewhat什么时候shénme shíhouwhen为什么wèishénmewhy怎么zěnmehow怎么zěn mehow; why (in rhetorical questions)为什么wèi shén mewhy, for what reason这么zhè meso, this much, like this那么nà meso, then, in that case怎么样zěn me yànghow, what do you think, how about干什么gàn shén mewhat are (you/they) doing, why do that没什么méi shén meit's nothing, never mind, no big deal怎么办zěn me bànwhat to do, what should be done怎么回事zěn me huí shìwhat's going on, what's the matter多么duō mehow, what, so什么样shén me yàngwhat kind of, what sort of要么yào meeither, or, either... or...

Used in

Grammar articles

(13)

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This word is part of lesson 6.