呀 (yā): ah (used to express surprise), (onom.) creaking, (particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)

呀 (yā) is a Chinese character meaning “ah (used to express surprise).” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 牙 (phonetic). It ranks #929 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ah (used to express surprise)
  2. (onom.) creaking
  3. (particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)

Etymology & Origin

呀

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口牙 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 呀

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
哎呀interjectionāi yāinterjection of wonder, shock or admiration5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
啊呀interjectionā yāinterjection of surprise
吱呀nounzhī yā(onom.) creaking
天呀tiān yaHeavens!
呀呀学语yā yā xué yǔsee 咿呀學語|咿呀学语
呀诺达yā nuò dáYanoda, a rainforest in southern Hainan
咿呀学语verbyī yā xué yǔ(of a baby) to babble
欧咪呀给ōu mī yā gěi(Tw) gift given when visiting sb (esp. a local specialty brought back from one's travels, or a special product of one...
吽呀óu yávariant of 吽牙
9
Total compounds
22
As first character
56
As last character
22
As middle character

呀 appears in 9 compound words: 22 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 22 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 呀 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

哎āi
0.721792 co-occurrences
唉āi
0.59794 co-occurrences
呜wū
0.596146 co-occurrences
嘿hēi
0.53186 co-occurrences
啊a
0.476170 co-occurrences
喂wèi
0.47262 co-occurrences
妈mā
0.463146 co-occurrences
捶chuí
0.45522 co-occurrences
你nǐ
0.437738 co-occurrences
瘦shòu
0.40450 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他呀才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā yā cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He's quite the catch—eloquent and persuasive, an outstanding lawyer.

少数派Jul 2026

就算工作累,也还是要好好吃饭呀。

jiù suàn gōng zuò lěi , yě hái shì yāo hǎo hǎo chī fàn yā .

Even if work is tiring, you still need to eat well.

StheadlineApr 2026

...sso 食客呻悭皮 网民嘲..玩紧煮饭仔呀

. . . s s o shí kè shēn 悭 pí wǎng mín cháo . . wán jǐn zhǔ fàn zǐ yā

...Sso diners complain about the stingy portions; netizens mock... "Are you playing 'Cooking Boy'?"

東方日報Apr 2026

...男子家庭纠纷街头叫嚣被制服 高呼:唔好揿呀!好X痛呀

. . . nán zǐ jiā tíng jiū fēn jiē tóu jiào xiāo bèi zhì fú gāo hū : 唔 hǎo 揿 yā ! hǎo X tòng yā

...Man subdued after causing a disturbance on the street over a family dispute; he shouted, "Don't press it! It hurts like hell!"

SmzdmMar 2026

...最好的艾维!太细节了,给杨校长看的一顿夸呀!拿下GG多抓!

. . . zuì hǎo de ài wéi ! tài xì jié le , gěi yáng jiào cháng kàn de yī dùn kuā yā ! ná xià G G duō zhuā !

...Way to go, Aivi! That's so detailed—Principal Yang gave you a real compliment when he saw it! Keep up the great work!

99 健康网Feb 2026

老年人硬不起有啥办法呀?真空负压装置适合高龄患者吗

lǎo nián rén yìng bù qǐ yǒu 啥 bàn fǎ yā ? zhēn kōng fù yā zhuāng zhì shì gě gāo líng huàn zhě ma

What can be done about the elderly who can't afford it? Is the vacuum negative pressure device suitable for elderly patients?

Tatoeba

宇宙里有多少个星系呀?

Yǔzhòu lǐ yǒu duōshao gè xīngxì ya?

How many galaxies are there in the universe?

Tatoeba

汤姆在哪儿买的这些花呀?

Tāngmǔ zài nǎr mǎi de zhèxiē huā ya?

Where did Tom buy these flowers?

Tatoeba

桌上的钥匙是谁的呀?

Zhuō shàng de yàoshi shì shéi de ya?

Whose key is that on the table?

Tatoeba

汤姆对什么过敏呀?

Tāngmǔ duì shénme guòmǐn ya?

What's Tom allergic to?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced yā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 呀 (yā) mean in Chinese?
呀 (yā) primarily means "ah (used to express surprise)." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #929 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 呀 have?
呀 is written with 7 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 呀?
The radical associated with 呀 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 呀?
呀 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 牙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口牙 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 呀?
Common words with 呀 include: 哎呀 (āi yā, "interjection of wonder, shock or admiration"); 啊呀 (ā yā, "interjection of surprise"); 吱呀 (zhī yā, "(onom.) creaking"); 天呀 (tiān ya, "Heavens!"); 呀呀学语 (yā yā xué yǔ, "see 咿呀學語|咿呀学语"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 呀 (yā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yā: 鸦 (crow), 芽 (bud), 亚 (Asia), 压 (to press), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 呀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 呀 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 呀 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.