Translingual

Stroke order

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲) : semantic 口 ‎(“mouth”) + phonetic 阿 ‎(OC *qaːl).

Han character

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

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

Chinese

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

啊

1. Used by itself to express surprise. ah, oh, ha

   啊！我又贏了！ / 啊！我又赢了！  ―  Ā! Wǒ yòu yíng le!  ―  Ha! I've won again!

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

啊

1. Used to indicate doubt or questioning. what?, huh?, eh

   啊？你說什麼？ / 啊？你说什么？  ―  Á? Nǐ shuō shénme?  ―  Huh, what did you say?

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

啊

1. Used to indicate puzzled surprise. what? oh? huh?

   啊！真有這事兒？ / 啊！真有这事儿？  ―  Ǎ! Zhēn yǒu zhè shìr?  ―  What? Is that really so?

Pronunciation 4

Definitions

啊

1. Used to indicate agreement/approval. ah

   啊，好吧。  ―  À, hǎo ba.  ―  Well, OK.

Pronunciation 5

Definitions

啊

1. Sentence-final particle expressing surprise.

   你不來啊？ / 你不来啊？  ―  Nǐ bù lái a?  ―  So you're not coming?

2. Sentence-final particle expressing exclamation, excitement or enthusiasm.

   多好的天兒啊！ / 多好的天儿啊！  ―  Duō hǎo de tiānr a!  ―  What a fine day!

   謝謝啊 / 谢谢啊  ―  xièxiè a  ―  Thanks.

3. Sentence-final particle softening the request.

   老王啊，這可不行啊！ [MSC, trad.]

   老王啊，这可不行啊！ [MSC, simp.]

   Lǎo Wáng a, zhè kě bùxíng a! [Pinyin]

   Wang, this won't do!

4. Used in enumerations, for confirmation (often untranslated).

   錢啊，書啊，表啊，我都丟了。 [MSC, trad.]

   钱啊，书啊，表啊，我都丢了。 [MSC, simp.]

   Qián a, shū a, biǎo a, wǒ dōu diū le. [Pinyin]

   Money, books, watch, I lost everything.

5. on and on, continuously

Usage notes

In speech, this toneless particle is found in complementary distribution with several other particles, governed by the nature of the preceding syllable. However, this distinction is not strictly reflected in writing, and 啊 tends to an all-encompassing particle. Thus it may carry the pronunciation of any of its variants below in actual speech:

• -ng, ci, zi, si, chi, zhi, shi + [a] → 啊 [a]
• -a, -o, -e, -i, -ü + [a] → 呀 [ya]
• -u, -ao + [a] → 哇 [wa]
• -n + [a] → 哪 [na]

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. Exclamatory particle

Readings

• Goon: あ (a)
• Kan’on: あ (a)
• Kun: こえ (koe)

Korean

Hanja

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

1. love

Vietnamese

Han character

啊 (à, a, ạ)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.