吗 · ma
final interrogative particle
Meanings & readings
Meaning & readings
final interrogative particle
- Mandarin
- ma
- Cantonese
- maa3
Unihan definitions and selected character readings. Read the word to establish its pronunciation in context.
Form & structure
Writing & identity
- Unicode
- U+5417
- Radical
- 口 · 30
- Strokes
- 6 · Unihan
- Residual
- 3
Source record · Unihan 17.0. Individual senses and historical claims have not yet been reviewed by zimai.
Stroke order
6 strokesModern stroke order; regional conventions can differ. Stroke medians: Make Me a Hanzi via HanziLookupJS, drawn as an even pen line.
Graphical structure
How to read these symbols
⿰ left–right · ⿱ above–below · ⿻ overlap. Dotted boxes indicate positions, not missing characters. Each symbol describes the components that follow it; nested symbols describe a component in more detail. Source codes identify alternative analyses, not a writing sequence or an etymology.
BabelStone IDS · 2025-06-27. Region tags are preserved; 〾 marks approximation and {n} identifies an unencoded source component. These describe graphical structure, not historical derivation.
Words & connections
Words using 吗
Character connections
No reverse component match in this collection.
History & distinctions
Related forms
Unihan traditional/simplified variant properties. Conversion may depend on context.
Sources & reference
Evidence & next depth
Retained Unihan properties
- kMandarin
- ma
- kCantonese
- maa3
- kDefinition
- final interrogative particle
- kTotalStrokes
- 6
- kRSUnicode
- 30.3
- kTraditionalVariant
- U+55CE
- kTGH
- 2013:432
Readings across dictionaries
- Xiandai Hanyu · 1983
- má 0755.030 · mǎ 0758.020 · ma 0758.090
- Tongyong Guifan · 2013
- má 240.070 · mǎ 240.110 · ma 241.060
- Reading counts · XDHYPLCD
- ma(1456) má(93)