HSK 6 · Function Words

咋 zǎ “how” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 咋 means

  1. how
  2. why (dialect, short for 怎么)
  3. dialectal equivalent of 怎么

How to say 咋

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale咋zǎ3rd tone, dipping

咋 in a sentence

  1. 最近咋样？

    Zuìjìn zǎyàng?

    How have you been lately?

    Sentence #2254255 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你今天心情咋样？

    Nǐ jīntiān xīnqíng zǎyàng?

    How are you feeling today?

    Sentence #10314791 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 夏天过得咋样啊？

    Xiàtiān guò de zǎyàng a?

    How was your summer?

    Sentence #2047578 from Tatoeba

How 咋 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 咋 (zǎ) with each of its parts in a different colour
咋zǎdialectal equivalent of 怎么
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 乍first time · zhàSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 乍 (zhà) hints at the sound. Compare it with zǎ.

How to write 咋

咋 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 咋

More words: Function Words & Grammar

以致yǐzhì · with the result that勇于yǒngyú · to have the courage to犹如yóurú · just like愈yù · the more … the more照样zhàoyàng · as usual之际zhījì · at the time of致使zhìshǐ · to cause终究zhōngjiū · after all

FAQs

咋 (zǎ) means “how” or “why (dialect, short for 怎么)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zǎ: zǎ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 咋 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type za with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 咋 from the suggestions. Typing za into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
咋 is an HSK 6 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.