(): (onom.) sound of singing, cheering etc, (phonetic), (dialect) to chat

() is a Chinese character meaning “(onom.) sound of singing, cheering etc.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1190 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (onom.) sound of singing, cheering etc
  2. (phonetic)
  3. (dialect) to chat

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口拉 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lā lā duìcheerleading squad
huā lā(onom.) sound of a crash
huā lā lā(onom.) crashing sound
hū lā lāflapping sound
lā lā duì zhǎngcheerleader
bā lā bā lā(loanword) blah blah blah
kǎ lācrispy, deep-fried (variant of 卡拉[ka3 la1])
huā lā yī shēngwith a crash
hū lā quānhula hoop (loanword)
pī li pā lā(onom.) crackling of firecrackers
xī li huā lā(onom.) chaotic or dynamic noises (pattering, crashing, rustling, clattering, sobbing etc)
pī li pā lāvariant of 噼里啪啦[pi1 li5 pa1 la1]
xī li huā lāvariant of 稀里嘩啦|稀里哗啦[xi1 li5 hua1 la1]
pī li pā lāvariant of 噼里啪啦[pi1 li5 pa1 la1]
gā la(onom.) rumbling
26
Total compounds
12
As first character
54
As last character
35
As middle character

appears in 26 compound words: 12 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 35 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

duō
0.83019,542 co-occurrences
mèng
0.4832,850 co-occurrences
huā
0.466264 co-occurrences
hóu
0.405654 co-occurrences
0.397390 co-occurrences
zhuō
0.391666 co-occurrences
suō
0.39036 co-occurrences
wéi
0.386156 co-occurrences
0.377126 co-occurrences
bàng
0.3761,512 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

pīlīpālāHSK 7+

alternative form of 噼哩啪啦

adjective
līlilālāHSK 6+

scattered; sporadic

adjective

Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā lā zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom reminded me to eat on time and take care of my health.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【厝内大小事】知路/红包开溜!呼叫福气侦探队

厝 nèi dà xiǎo shì zhī lù hóng bāo kāi liū lā ! hū jiào fú qì zhēn tàn duì

【Big and Small Things in the House】Know the Road/Red Envelope Open It! Call the Blessing Detectives

Hk01.comFeb 2026

队女神“牛奶”车底发现不明物体 去车行...

lā lā duì nǚ shén niú nǎi chē de fā xiàn bù míng wù tǐ qù chē háng . . .

Cheerleading goddess "Milk" found an unknown object under the car and went to the car dealership...

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

乐天女孩拼了!传升级韩籍队6本柱 规模称霸联盟剑指天花板

lè tiān nǚ hái pīn le ! chuán shēng jí hán jí lā lā duì 6 běn zhù guī mó chèn bà lián méng jiàn zhǐ tiān huā bǎn

Lotte girls fight! Pass and upgrade the Korean cheerleading team 6 pillars to dominate the league on a large scale

東森新聞Feb 2026

中职/队战火再升级!朴星垠传加盟富邦携李珠珢

zhōng zhí lā lā duì zhàn huǒ zài shēng jí ! pǔ xīng 垠 chuán jiā méng fù bāng xié lǐ zhū 珢

The war between secondary vocational schools/cheerleaders has escalated again! Park Xingyin is rumored to join Fubon with Li Zhujun

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

这谁要?马年刮刮乐送“小强标本”引热议 台北动...

zhè shéi yāo lā ? mǎ nián guā guā lè sòng xiǎo qiáng biāo běn yǐn rè yì tái běi dòng . . .

Who wants this? The Year of the Horse scratch card sends "Xiaoqiang specimens" to arouse heated discussions in Taipei...

Tatoeba

你仔细看看,太新鲜

Nǐ zǐxì kànkan, tài xīnxiān lā!

Take a good look, it's really fresh!

Tatoeba

我当然有资格这么说

Wǒ dāngrán yǒuzīgé zhème shuō lā.

I am certainly entitled to speak like this.

Tatoeba

那我就恭敬不如从命

Nà wǒ jiù gōngjìngbùrúcóngmìng lā.

Then I'll work on the principle that deference is no substitute for obedience.

Tatoeba

别用怨恨的眼神看我

Bié yòng yuànhèn de yǎnshén kàn wǒ lā.

Stop giving me such a venomous look.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 啦 (lā) mean in Chinese?
啦 (lā) primarily means "(onom.) sound of singing, cheering etc." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1190 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 啦 have?
啦 is written with 11 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 啦?
The radical associated with 啦 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 啦?
啦 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 拉 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口拉 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 啦?
Common words with 啦 include: 啦啦队 (lā lā duì, "cheerleading squad"); 哗啦 (huā lā, "(onom.) sound of a crash"); 哗啦啦 (huā lā lā, "(onom.) crashing sound"); 呼啦啦 (hū lā lā, "flapping sound"); 啦啦队长 (lā lā duì zhǎng, "cheerleader"). There are over 26 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 啦 (lā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lā: 垃 (garbage), 拉 (to pull), 喇 ((onom.) sound of wind, rain etc), 蜡 (wax), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 啦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 啦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.