HSK 2 · Particles

吧 ba “suggestion particle” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 吧 means

  1. suggestion particle
  2. (modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise)
  3. …right?
  4. …OK?
  5. …I presume.

How to say 吧

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

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

吧 in a sentence

  1. 下午一起去游泳吧。

    Xiàwǔ yìqǐ qù yóuyǒng ba.

    Let’s go swimming together this afternoon.

    Sentence #337224 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 现在，让我们休息一会儿吧。

    Xiànzài, ràng wǒmen xiūxi yíhuìr ba.

    Let’s take a break now.

    Sentence #1428152 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们去踢足球吧！

    Wǒmen qù tīzúqiú ba!

    Let’s go and play soccer!

    Sentence #11231395 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 吧 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 吧 (ba) with each of its parts in a different colour
吧ba…right?
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 巴to desire · bāSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 巴 (bā) hints at the sound. Compare it with ba.

How to write 吧

吧 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 吧

Words with 吧

酒吧jiǔbā · bar

More words: Particles & Connectors

都dōu · all很hěn · very太tài · too和hé · and比bǐ · compared to得de · particle linking a verb to how it is done (e.g. 跑得快离lí · away from从cóng · from

FAQs

吧 (ba) means “suggestion particle” or “(modal particle indicating suggestion or surmise)”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it ba: ba with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 吧 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ba with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 吧 from the suggestions. Typing ba into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
吧 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.