啊

See also: a

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

口 (meaning: mouth) + 阿 (phonetic: a).

Han character

啊 (radical 30 口+8, 11 strokes, cangjie input 口弓中口 (RNLR), four-corner 6102₀, composition ⿰口阿)

1. exclamatory particle

References

• KangXi: page 195, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3808
• Dae Jaweon: page 416, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 634, character 18
• Unihan data for U+554A
• internationalscientific.org

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Cantonese

simpl. and trad.
啊

Hanzi

啊 (Jyutping aa1, aa2, aa3, aa4, Yale a1, a2, a3, a4)

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Hakka

Hanzi

啊 (POJ o (o¹), ó (o²), Guangdong o¹ [Meixian, Bao'an, Kwangtung], o¹, a¹ [Hailu, Siyan], Hagfa Pinyim o2, o3)

References

• CCDICT (Chineselanguage.org)
• Academia Sinica - Hakka-English Dictionary
• Lau, Chun-fat. Hakka Pinyin Dictionary (Chinese). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1997 (Chinese IME supplement) ISBN 962-201-750-9.

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Japanese

Kanji

啊

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

Readings

• On: あ (a)
• Kun: こえ (koe)

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Korean

Hanja

啊 (a) (hangeul 아, revised a, McCune-Reischauer a)

1. love

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.
啊

Pronunciation

• audio (ā)

  (file)

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin ā Zhuyin ㄚ IPA (key) /ˀa̠⁵⁵/

• audio (a)

  (file)

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin a Zhuyin ㄚ˙ IPA (key) /ˀa̠/

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin ǎ Zhuyin ㄚˇ IPA (key) /ˀa̠²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin á Zhuyin ㄚˊ IPA (key) /ˀa̠³⁵/

Mandarin (Standard Chinese, Beijing) Pinyin à Zhuyin ㄚˋ IPA (key) /ˀa̠⁵¹/

Hanzi

啊 (Pinyin ā (a1), á (a2), ǎ (a3), à (a4), a (a5), Wade-Giles a¹, a², a³, a⁴, a)

Interjection

啊 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin ā)

1. used by itself to express surprise; ah, oh, ha

   啊！我又赢了！ — Ā! Wǒ yòu yíng le! — Ha! I've won again!

Interjection

啊 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin ǎ)

1. (indicating puzzled surprise) what? oh? huh?

   啊！真有这事儿？ — Ǎ! Zhēn yǒu zhè shìr? — What? Is that really so?

Interjection

啊 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin á)

1. (indicating doubt or questioning) what?, huh?, eh

   啊？你说什么？ — Á? Nǐ shuō shénme? — Huh, what did you say?

Interjection

啊 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin à)

1. (indicating agreement/approval) ah

   啊，好吧。 — À, hǎo ba. — Well, OK.

Particle

啊 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin a)

1. placed at the end of a sentence to express surprise; softens the request; indicates approval; indicates enthusiasm; used in enumerations, for confirmation (often untranslated)

   多好天儿啊！ — Duō hǎo tiānr a! — What a fine day!

   谢谢啊 — Xièxiè a — Thanks

   老王啊，这可不行啊！ — Lǎo Wáng a, zhè kě bùxíng a! — Wang, this won't do!

   钱啊，书啊，表啊，我都丢了。 — Qián a, shū a, biǎo a, wǒ dōu diū le. — Money, books, watch, I lost everything.

   你不来啊？ — Nǐ bù lái a? — So you're not coming?

Usage notes

Only used after words ending in -ng, ci, zi, si, chi, zhi, shi. See 呀 yā, 哇 wā, 哪 nā, [[]] lā.

References

• internationalscientific.org
• yellowbridge.com

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Min Nan

simpl. and trad.
啊

Hanzi

啊 (POJ a (a¹))

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ a ]

Interjection

啊 (traditional and simplified, POJ a)

1. ah; oh

Usage notes

• placed at the end of a sentence, or used by itself to express surprise.

References

• "啊" (in Taiwanese/English), On-line Taiwanese/Mandarin Dictionary (台文／華文線頂辭典). URL accessed on 2011-01-29.

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Vietnamese

Han character

啊 (a, à, ạ)