HSK 1 · Family

妈妈 māma “mum” in Chinese

Traditional 媽媽

What 妈妈 means

  1. mum
  2. mama
  3. mommy
  4. mother

Measure word 个 gè or 位 wèi · 一个妈妈 yí ge māma

How to say 妈妈

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale妈mā1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own妈maneutral tone, light and short

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

妈妈 in a sentence

  1. 这是我的妈妈。

    Zhè shì wǒ de māma.

    This is my mum.

    Sentence #330581 from Tatoeba

  2. 妈妈，你在想什么呢？

    Māma, nǐ zài xiǎng shénme ne?

    Mum, what are you thinking about?

    Sentence #10966720 from Tatoeba

  3. 我妹妹很像我妈妈。

    Wǒ mèimei hěn xiàng wǒ māma.

    My sister resembles my mother.

    Sentence #334032 from Tatoeba

How 妈妈 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 妈 (mā) with each of its parts in a different colour
妈māma
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 马horse · mǎSound part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 马 (mǎ) hints at the sound. Compare it with mā.

The character 妈 (mā) with each of its parts in a different colour
妈māmalight in 妈妈
  • 女woman · nǚMeaning part
  • 马horse · mǎSound part

女 hints at the meaning (woman); 马 (mǎ) hints at the sound. Compare it with ma.

How to write 妈妈

妈 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 妈妈

More words: People, Body & Health

爸爸bàba · dad儿子érzi · son女儿nǚ'ér · daughter人rén · person朋友péngyou · friend皱纹zhòuwén · wrinkle注射zhùshè · to inject嘴唇zuǐchún · lip

In the Chinese zodiac

马mǎ · Year of the Horse

妈 takes its sound from 马 (horse).

FAQs

妈妈 (māma) means “mum” or “mama”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it māma: mā with a 1st tone, then ma with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 妈妈 is written 媽媽. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 个 (gè) or 位 (wèi). For example, one mum is 一个妈妈 (yí ge māma).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mama with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 妈妈 from the suggestions. Typing mama into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
妈妈 is an HSK 1 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.