HSK 4 · Function Words

呀 ya “(particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 呀 means

  1. (particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)

How to say 呀

  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own呀yaneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

呀 in a sentence

  1. 你今天想去哪儿呀？

    Nǐ jīntiān xiǎng qù nǎr ya?

    Where do you want to go today?

    Sentence #4270129 from Tatoeba

  2. 这些孩子多可爱呀！

    Zhèxiē háizi duō kě'ài ya!

    These children are so cute!

    Sentence #11837789 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们以为是谁，原来是您呀！

    Wǒmen yǐwéi shì shéi, yuánlái shì nín ya!

    We wondered who it was – and it’s you!

    Sentence #939833 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 呀 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 呀 (ya) with each of its parts in a different colour
呀yaparticle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel,
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 牙tooth · yáSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 牙 (yá) hints at the sound. Compare it with ya.

How to write 呀

呀 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

呀 (ya) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 呀 (ya). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 呀

More words: Particles & Connectors

完全wánquán · complete往往wǎngwǎng · usually无论wúlùn · no matter what or how许多xǔduō · many要是yàoshi · if也许yěxǔ · perhaps页yè · page一切yíqiè · everything

FAQs

呀 (ya) means “(particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it ya: ya with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 呀 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ya with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 呀 from the suggestions. Typing ya into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
呀 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.