Chinese word dictionary

要嘛

yào ma · either ...; or ...

Practice word

Word information

Simplified要嘛

Traditional要嘛

Pinyinyào ma

Part of speechDictionary

HSK 3.0Not listed

HSK 2.0Not listed

Character breakdown

Study each Hanzi separately, then return to the complete word so pronunciation, meaning, and movement stay connected.

要yào

essential, necessary; to ask for; to coerce; to demand

嘛ma

final exclamatory particle

How to learn 要嘛

Listen once without reading, repeat the pinyin with its tones, then write every character in sequence. Finally, recall the complete meaning instead of memorizing each character as an isolated translation.

When the word appears in a sentence, check whether its part of speech and meaning match the definition shown here. Chinese words can change nuance with context.

Related vocabulary

Words with the same characters

Compare how a familiar Hanzi changes meaning inside another word.

不要búyào

don't!; must not

要yào

to want; to need; to ask for; will; shall; about to; need to; should; if (same as 要是[yao4 shi5]); (bound form) important

快要kuàiyào

nearly at the point of (doing sth); about to (do sth)

需要xūyào

to need; to want; to demand; to require; needs

要求yāoqiú

to request; to require; requirement; to stake a claim; to ask; to demand; CL:點|点[dian3]

只要zhǐyào

so long as; provided; if