HSK 3 · Function Words

啊 a “ah” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 啊 means

  1. ah
  2. particle showing elation, doubt, puzzled surprise, or approval
  3. modal particle ending sentence, showing affirmation, approval, or consent

How to say 啊

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

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

啊 in a sentence

  1. 多漂亮的花啊！

    Duō piàoliang de huā a!

    What beautiful flowers!

    Sentence #407228 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 这是谁啊？

    Zhè shì shéi a?

    Who’s this?

    Sentence #9958407 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 啊！我的电脑坏了！

    A! Wǒ de diànnǎo huài le!

    Oh no! My computer’s broken!

    Sentence #502884 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 啊 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 啊 (a) with each of its parts in a different colour
啊amodal particle ending sentence
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 阿an initial particle · āSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 阿 (ā) hints at the sound. Compare it with a.

How to write 啊

啊 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 啊

More words: Particles & Connectors

对duì · correct往wǎng · to go (in a direction)一下yíxià · (after a verb) briefly着zhe · particle for an ongoing action or state (-ing)把bǎ · pretransitive particle被bèi · by比较bǐjiào · compare比赛bǐsài · sports match

FAQs

啊 (a) means “ah” or “particle showing elation, doubt, puzzled surprise, or approval”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it a: a with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 啊 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type a with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 啊 from the suggestions. Typing a into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
啊 is an HSK 3 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.