抹 (mā): to wipe down (a surface); to gi…

Meanings

1 to wipe down (a surface); to give a quick wipe with a cloth

Characters

抹

mā

to wipe down (a surface); to give a quick wipe with a cloth

Examples

妈，请把桌子抹一下。

Mā, qǐng bǎ zhuōzi mā yīxià.

Mom, please give the table a wipe.

他拿出一块抹布，把台面抹干净。

Tā náchū yī kuài mābù, bǎ táimiàn mā gānjìng.

He pulled out a rag and wiped down the counter.

Tips

usage

The mā reading is the everyday 'wipe down' word — used for cleaning surfaces with a rag or cloth. The key collocation is 抹布 (a cleaning rag); from there it generalizes to 抹桌子 (wipe the table), 抹地 (mop the floor). Different from mǒ: mǒ smears something ON, mā wipes something OFF.

mistakes

Don't say 抹布 — the rag word is always mā: 抹布. If you can replace English 'wipe' with 'wipe down a flat surface', you want mā.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Same hand radical as in the mǒ reading. The mā sense is the most physically direct hand-action of the three readings: a flat palm or rag sweeping across a surface.

phonetic

末 mò

end; tip (here phonetic)

Same phonetic 末 as in the mǒ and mò readings. The mā shift is a colloquial tone change that froze in everyday Beijing-area speech.