HSK 3 · Nature

马 mǎ “horse” in Chinese

Traditional 馬

What 马 means

  1. horse
  2. horse or cavalry piece in Chinese chess
  3. knight in Western chess

Measure word 匹 pǐ · 一匹马 yì pǐ mǎ

How to say 马

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale马mǎ3rd tone, dipping

马 in a sentence

  1. 昨天我第一次骑了马。

    Zuótiān wǒ dìyī cì qí le mǎ.

    I rode a horse for the first time yesterday.

    Sentence #8792046 from Tatoeba

  2. 你喂过马了吗？

    Nǐ wèiguo mǎ le ma?

    Have you fed the horses yet?

    Sentence #8463628 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 只有四匹马参加了比赛。

    Zhǐyǒu sì pǐ mǎ cānjiā le bǐsài.

    Only four horses took part in the race.

    Sentence #3862142 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 马 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 马 (mǎ) drawn as one shape
马mǎhorse

马 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidSimplified from 馬, drawn from a horse with its mane and legs.

How to write 马

马 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 马

Words with 马

马上mǎshàng · at once马路mǎlù · road马虎mǎhu · careless

More words: Nature, Animals & Weather

草cǎo · grass动物dòngwù · animal刮风guāfēng · windy环境huánjìng · environment鸟niǎo · bird树shù · tree太阳tàiyáng · the sun熊猫xióngmāo · panda

FAQs

马 (mǎ) means “horse” or “horse or cavalry piece in Chinese chess”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it mǎ: mǎ with a 3rd 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, 马 is written 馬. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 匹 (pǐ). For example, one horse is 一匹马 (yì pǐ mǎ).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ma with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 马 from the suggestions. Typing ma into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
马 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.