p8nda
p8nda BETA
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嘛

ma
particle HSK 6 #237

Meanings

  1. 1 modal particle indicating obviousness
  2. 2 particle marking a pause for emphasis or explanation

Examples

他是学生嘛，当然要学习。
Tā shì xuéshēng ma, dāngrán yào xuéxí.
He's a student, so of course he should study.
你慢慢来嘛，不着急。
Nǐ mànman lái ma, bù zháojí.
Take your time, no rush.
大家都是朋友嘛。
Dàjiā dōu shì péngyou ma.
We're all friends, after all.
有什么好怕的嘛。
Yǒu shénme hǎo pà de ma.
What is there to be afraid of?

Tips

usage
Toneless 嘛 is the obviousness particle, not the yes-no question marker 吗. It assumes the listener already agrees and softens the speaker's tone: [reason or fact] + 嘛 = 'well obviously, because...'. Casual and conversational; overusing it can sound whiny or impatient.
register
A rising-tone reading 嘛 exists but is niche. It appears only in the transliterated Tibetan mantra om mani padme hum (the second syllable) and as a Taiwan-colloquial 'what?' Mainland speakers virtually never use 嘛; on the mainland the same colloquial 'what?' is written 干吗 or 干嘛. For everyday speech, treat 嘛 as toneless.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical, a small square picturing an open mouth. It marks 嘛 as something said aloud — a sentence-final particle softening tone or signalling explanation. The mouth radical anchors a huge family of speech-and-sound particles and interjections: 啊, 吗, 呢, 啦, 嘿.
phonetic
麻 má
hemp; numb
Right 麻 supplies the sound — má lightens to toneless ma in the everyday particle use, and the older má reading survives in the niche mantra and Taiwan-colloquial senses. 麻 itself shows hemp stalks under a shelter 广, picturing the workshop where hemp was processed; that meaning is incidental here, the right side is read purely for sound. Same phonetic family includes 妈 (mother), 吗 (question marker), and 玛 (agate).

Stroke Order

嘛 ma