么 (me): suffix used in 什么 (what), 这么 (so), 怎么 (how) etc, interrogative final particle, exclamatory final particle

么 (me) is a Chinese character meaning “suffix used in 什么 (what), 这么 (so), 怎么 (how) etc.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丿 (structural) and 厶 (structural). It ranks #63 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. suffix used in 什么 (what), 这么 (so), 怎么 (how) etc
  2. interrogative final particle
  3. exclamatory final particle

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 么

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
什么pronounshén mewhat?1
怎么pronounzěn mehow?1
为什么adverbwèi shén mewhy?2
这么pronounzhè meso much2
那么pronoun/conjunctionnà melike that2
怎么样pronounzěn me yànghow?1
怎么办phrasezěn me bànwhat's to be done3
多么adverbduō mehow (wonderful etc)4
要么conjunctionyào meor6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
没什么adverbméi shén meit doesn't matter
干什么verbgàn shén mewhat are you doing?
什么样pronounshén me yàngwhat kind?
什么的particleshén me deand so on
怎么着pronounzěn me zhāowhat?
不怎么adverbbù zěn menot very
这么着adverbzhè me zhethus
这么样pronounzhè me yàngthus
那么着adverbnà me zhe(do sth) that way
怎么得了interjectionzěn me dé liǎohow can this be?
没有什么不可能méi yǒu shén me bù kě néngnothing is impossible
这么点adjectivezhè me diǎnsuch a small amount of (money, time etc)
没有什么méi yǒu shén meit is nothing
么么nounme mekissing sound (slang onom.)
什么人shén me rénwho?
47
Total compounds
2
As first character
36
As last character
62
As middle character

么 appears in 47 compound words: 2 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 62 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 么 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

什shén
0.78741,869 co-occurrences
怎zěn
0.6829,116 co-occurrences
那nà
0.64428,996 co-occurrences
没méi
0.4936,714 co-occurrences
呢ne
0.4591,027 co-occurrences
这zhè
0.45411,018 co-occurrences
做zuò
0.4444,370 co-occurrences
样yàng
0.4292,826 co-occurrences
饿è
0.420216 co-occurrences
要yào
0.42011,686 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

不怎么样bùzěnmeyàngHSK 1+

so-so; nothing great about it; poor

adjective
什么时候shénme shíhouHSK 1+

when; what time

adverb
怎么得了zěnme déliǎoHSK 1+

how could it be

怎么搞的zěn me gǎo deHSK 5+

How did it happen?; What's wrong?; What went wrong?

phrase
怎么回事zěnme huí shìHSK 1+

What's going on?; What happened?; What's the matter?

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好么字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo má zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "么" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

没有你想的那么光鲜 有些冬奥选手已私下在做一事

méi yǒu nǐ xiǎng de nà má guāng xiān yǒu xiē dōng ào xuǎn shǒu yǐ sī xià zài zuò yī shì

Not as glamorous as you think Some Winter Olympians are already doing something in private

三立新聞網Feb 2026

为什么百货公司一楼没厕?背后原因超心机

wéi shén má bǎi huò gōng sī yī lóu méi cè ? bèi hòu yuán yīn chāo xīn jī

Why is there no toilet on the first floor of a department store? The reason behind it is super scheming

百度新闻Feb 2026

...|家乡连线:“最强夫妻档”!电影都不敢这么演..

. . . jiā xiāng lián xiàn : zuì qiáng fū qī dàng ! diàn yǐng dōu bù gǎn zhè má yǎn . .

...| Hometown Connection: "The Strongest Husband and Wife"! The movie doesn't dare to act like this:

百度新闻Feb 2026

2026祛斑产品什么好?十大祛斑产品排名深扒:祛斑..

2 0 2 6 祛 bān chǎn pǐn shén má hǎo ? shí dà 祛 bān chǎn pǐn pái míng shēn bā : 祛 bān . .

What are the best freckle removal products in 2026? Top 10 freckle removal product rankings: freckle removal:

百度新闻Feb 2026

洗面奶什么牌子好?聚焦公认好用的洗面奶年终榜TOP...

xǐ miàn nǎi shén má pái zǐ hǎo ? jù jiāo gōng rèn hǎo yòng de xǐ miàn nǎi nián zhōng bǎng T O P . . .

What brand of facial cleanser is good? Focus on the year-end list of facial cleansers that are recognized as easy to use...

Tatoeba

你好!我叫汤姆。你叫什么?

Nǐhǎo! wǒ jiào Tāngmǔ. nǐ jiào shénme?

Hi, my name's Tom. What's yours?

Tatoeba

你能告诉我这是什么吗?

Nǐ néng gàosu wǒ zhè shì shénme ma?

Can you tell me what this is?

Tatoeba

有什么事是我该做的吗?

Yǒu shénme shì shì wǒ gāi zuò de ma?

Is there anything I must do?

Tatoeba

他来这里的目的是什么?

Tā lái zhèlǐ de mùdì shì shénme?

For what purpose did he come here?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 么 (me) mean in Chinese?
么 (me) primarily means "suffix used in 什么 (what), 这么 (so), 怎么 (how) etc." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #63 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 么 have?
么 is written with 3 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 么?
The radical associated with 么 is 丿 (slash). This radical appears in many characters related to slash.
What are the components of 么?
么 is composed of: 丿 (structural), 厶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱丿厶 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 么?
Common words with 么 include: 什么 (shén me, "what?"); 怎么 (zěn me, "how?"); 为什么 (wèi shén me, "why?"); 这么 (zhè me, "so much"); 那么 (nà me, "like that"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
Is 么 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 么 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 么 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.