吧 meaning and stroke order
(modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise); ...right?; ...OK?
How to write 吧, stroke by stroke
7 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Meaning of 吧
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise)
- ...right?
- ...OK?
- ...I presume.
- bar (loanword) (serving drinks, or providing Internet access etc)
- to puff (on a pipe etc)
- (onom.) bang
- abbr. for 貼吧|贴吧[tie1 ba1]
- (onom.) smack!
How 吧 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Mouth.
口 gives the meaning and 巴 hints at the sound.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 吧
吧 is a mouth 口 on the left plus 巴 (bā) on the right, which gives the sound. Picture your mouth adding a soft little "ba" at the end of a sentence to make it gentler.
As a neutral-tone particle ba, 吧 goes at the end of a sentence to make a suggestion, soften a request, or check an assumption, much like "let's", "OK?" or "right?" in English. 我们走吧。(Wǒmen zǒu ba.) Let's go. Read as bā, it appears in loanwords for places like 酒吧 (jiǔbā, bar) and 网吧 (wǎngbā, Internet café).
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 吧 (ba) with 吗 (ma). 吗 asks a real yes-or-no question, while 吧 shows you already expect the answer or are making a suggestion. Also, 吧 shares its right side with 爸 (bà, dad) and 把 (bǎ), so check the left part: a mouth 口 means the particle.
Common words with 吧
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
吧 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 吧
How many strokes are in 吧?
吧 is written with 7 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 吧 mean?
吧 (ba) means (modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise); ...right?; ...OK?. A common word with it is 酒吧 (jiǔbā), meaning "bar (place to buy drinks)".
How do you pronounce 吧?
吧 has more than one reading: ba and bā. The most common is ba, said in the neutral tone (short and light).
What is the radical of 吧?
The radical of 吧 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 吧 under this radical.
Is 吧 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 吧 is part of the HSK 1 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 1.
What is the difference between 你是老师吗 and 你是老师吧?
你是老师吗？(Nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) is an open question: are you a teacher? 你是老师吧？(Nǐ shì lǎoshī ba?) means you already guess they are and want confirmation: you're a teacher, right?
Does adding 吧 make a command more polite?
Yes, it softens an instruction into a suggestion. 你坐吧。(Nǐ zuò ba.) sounds like "go ahead and sit", which is friendlier than a bare 你坐 (nǐ zuò).