HSK 1 · Common Verbs

买 mǎi “to buy” in Chinese

Traditional 買

What 买 means

  1. to buy
  2. to purchase

How to say 买

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale买mǎi3rd tone, dipping

买 in a sentence

  1. 你给她买东西了吗？

    Nǐ gěi tā mǎi dōngxi le ma?

    Did you buy her something?

    Sentence #10184228 from Tatoeba

  2. 你已经买了票吗？

    Nǐ yǐjīng mǎi le piào ma?

    Have you already bought the tickets?

    Sentence #10058527 from Tatoeba

  3. 我给你买了个礼物。

    Wǒ gěi nǐ mǎi le ge lǐwù.

    I bought you a present.

    Sentence #3378009 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 买 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 买 (mǎi) with each of its parts in a different colour
买mǎito buy
  • 乛part of the character
  • 头head · tóu

How to write 买

买 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 买

More words: Common Verbs

回huí · to return住zhù · to live打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call睡觉shuìjiào · to sleep开kāi · to open学习xuéxí · to study请qǐng · please能néng · can

FAQs

买 (mǎi) means “to buy” or “to purchase”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it mǎi: mǎi 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, 买 is written 買. 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 买 from the suggestions. Typing mai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
买 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.