HSK 2 · Common Verbs

卖 mài “to sell” in Chinese

Traditional 賣

What 卖 means

  1. to sell
  2. to betray
  3. to spare no effort
  4. to show off or flaunt

How to say 卖

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale卖mài4th tone, falling

卖 in a sentence

  1. 他卖水果。

    Tā mài shuǐguǒ.

    He sells fruit.

    Sentence #7768273 from Tatoeba

  2. 那家店卖报纸和杂志。

    Nà jiā diàn mài bàozhǐ hé zázhì.

    That shop sells newspapers and magazines.

    Sentence #349668 from Tatoeba

  3. 鸡蛋也卖完了。

    Jīdàn yě mài wán le.

    The eggs are sold out too.

    Sentence #431115 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 卖 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 卖 (mài) with each of its parts in a different colour
卖màito sell
  • 十ten · shí
  • 买to buy · mǎiMeaning part

买 hints at the meaning (to buy); 买 (mǎi) hints at the sound. Compare it with mài.

How to write 卖

卖 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 卖

Words with 卖

外卖wàimài · takeaway (food)出卖chūmài · to betray贩卖fànmài · to sell

More words: Common Verbs

坐zuò · to sit打篮球dǎlánqiú · to play basketball懂dǒng · to understand过guò · to pass跑步pǎobù · to run起床qǐchuáng · to get up上班shàngbān · to go to work说话shuōhuà · to speak

FAQs

卖 (mài) means “to sell” or “to betray”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it mài: mài with a 4th 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, 卖 is written 賣. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 卖 from the suggestions. Typing mai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
卖 is an HSK 2 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.