HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Body

牙 yá “tooth” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 牙 means

  1. tooth
  2. ivory

Measure word 颗 kē · 一颗牙 yì kē yá

How to say 牙

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale牙yá2nd tone, rising

牙 in a sentence

  1. 我的牙很痛。

    Wǒ de yá hěn tòng.

    My tooth really hurts.

    Sentence #344244 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 昨天晚上，我没刷牙就去睡觉了。

    Zuótiān wǎnshang, wǒ méi shuāyá jiù qù shuìjiào le.

    Last night, I went to bed without brushing my teeth.

    Sentence #4265198 from Tatoeba

  3. 今天我去看了牙医。

    Jīntiān wǒ qù kàn le yáyī.

    I went to the dentist today.

    Sentence #346885 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 牙 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 牙 (yá) drawn as one shape
牙yátooth

牙 is a single shape of 4 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidDrawn from upper and lower teeth meeting: tooth.

How to write 牙

牙 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 牙

Words with 牙

刷牙shuāyá · brush one’s teeth牙刷yáshuā · toothbrush牙膏yágāo · toothpaste牙齿yáchǐ · tooth

More words: People, Body & Health

头发tóufa · hair on the head腿tuǐ · leg嘴zuǐ · mouth病人bìngrén · patient住院zhùyuàn · to be in hospital身高shēngāo · (a person’s) height出院chūyuàn · to leave hospital爱情àiqíng · romance

FAQs

牙 (yá) means “tooth” or “ivory”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it yá: yá with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 牙 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 颗 (kē). For example, one tooth is 一颗牙 (yì kē yá).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ya with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 牙 from the suggestions. Typing ya into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
牙 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 word list. It is not on the older 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.