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Dictionary › 嘛

嘛

má

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 character level 6 Character

嘛 (má) means "modal particle indicating that sth is obvious; particle expressing a pause". It is an HSK 3.0 level 6 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 嘛 means

  1. used in {唵嘛呢叭咪吽|ǎn má ní bā mī hōng}
  2. Taiwancolloquialwhat?

How 嘛 is used in grammar

嘛 is a grammar word. Each link goes to its own section: what it does in that pattern, the structure, three example sentences with pinyin, and the mistake to avoid.

The official HSK 3.0 grammar outline lists it at level 6, particles (语气助词).

Other readings

嘛 is 多音字 — it is read more than one way, and the reading changes the meaning.

Example sentences

Words containing 嘛

Characters that look like 嘛

Easy to confuse on sight. Compare them side by side once and the pair stops costing you.

Sounds the same

Read má, tone for tone, but written differently.

Where 嘛 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · má (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

Looking a word up is not learning it. GraphChinese puts all of HSK 1–6 into one dependency graph, teaches each piece only once its prerequisites are solid, and schedules reviews to land just before you would forget.

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