嘎 meaning and stroke order
A cackling sound; bad, malevolent
How to write 嘎, stroke by stroke
14 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 嘎
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (onom.) short but loud sound
- cackling sound
- old variant of 嘎[ga2]
- (dialect) ill-tempered; ornery
- (dialect) naughty; mischievous
How 嘎 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Mouth.
口 gives the meaning and 戛 hints at the sound.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 嘎
The mouth 口 (kǒu) on the left tells you this is a sound, and 戛 (jiá) on the right gives the sound hint. Picture a mouth letting out a sharp, loud "ga" like a duck or a snapping branch.
Most often 嘎 (gā) imitates short, loud noises, usually doubled or paired with another sound word, as in 嘎嘎 (gāgā) for a duck's quack or 嘎吱 (gāzhī) for a creak. Example: 鸭子嘎嘎叫。(Yāzi gāgā jiào.) The duck goes quack quack.
Common mistake: Learners often read the right side as 戈 (gē) and write only 口戈. The full component is 戛 (jiá), which has 百 between the top stroke and 戈. Also note that 嘎 (gǎ) in the third tone is a separate dialect word meaning naughty or ornery, so do not use gā for that meaning.
Common words with 嘎
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
嘎 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 嘎
How many strokes are in 嘎?
嘎 is written with 14 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 嘎 mean?
嘎 (gā) means a cackling sound; bad, malevolent. A common word with it is 嘎吱 (gāzhī), meaning "(onom.) creak; crunch".
How do you pronounce 嘎?
嘎 is pronounced gā, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 嘎?
The radical of 嘎 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 嘎 under this radical.
What is the traditional form of 嘎?
The traditional form of 嘎 is 嘠. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 嘎 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.
What does 嘎 mean when someone calls a kid 嘎?
In northern dialects 嘎 is read gǎ and means naughty or mischievous, sometimes ill-tempered. You may hear 这孩子真嘎 (zhè háizi zhēn gǎ), meaning this kid is really mischievous.
Is 嘎 used in names or loanwords?
Yes. Because it gives a clear "ga" sound, it often appears in transliterations. A common example is 嘎嘣脆 (gābēngcuì), a colloquial phrase for something crisp and crunchy, and it also shows up in some place names and personal names.