吗 meaning in English
(question particle for "yes-no" questions)
Meaning of 吗
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- (question particle for "yes-no" questions)
- (coll.) what?
- used in 嗎啡|吗啡[ma3 fei1]
How to use 吗
Put 吗 at the very end of a statement to turn it into a yes-no question, with no change in word order. It is said in the neutral tone, light and short. Example: 你好吗？(Nǐ hǎo ma?) How are you?
吗 is a mouth 口 next to a horse 马 (mǎ). Picture yourself calling out to a horse with a question at the end of every sentence, and the horse gives the sound ma.
Common mistake: Learners often add 吗 to questions that already have a question word like 什么 (shénme) or 谁 (shéi), as in 你叫什么名字吗, which is wrong. Use 吗 only when the answer is yes or no.
吗 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
吗 ma · question particle for "yes-no" questions · 6 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Related words
Words that share a character with 吗.
| 干吗 | gànmá | variant of 幹嘛|干嘛[gan4 ma2] |
| 吗啡 | mǎfēi | morphine (loanword) |
Questions about 吗
What does 吗 mean?
吗 (ma) means "(question particle for "yes-no" questions)" and is used as a auxiliary verb.
How do you write 吗?
吗 is made of 1 character: 吗 (6 strokes). That is 6 strokes in total.
Is 吗 an HSK word?
Yes. 吗 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 吗 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 吗 is written 嗎.
What is the difference between 吗 and 呢?
吗 turns a statement into a yes-no question. 呢 (ne) is used for follow-up questions like 你呢？(Nǐ ne?) And you?, or with question words. They are not interchangeable.
What does 干吗 mean?
干吗 (gànmá) is a casual way to ask what someone is doing or why, as in 你干吗？(Nǐ gànmá?) What are you doing? It is a variant of 干嘛, and here 吗 is read má, not neutral ma.