About
The character "嘛" is a relatively modern creation in the Chinese writing system, emerging from the need to represent a common modal particle in the spoken language. Its etymology is directly phonetic, built upon the foundation of the character "麻" which provides the sound "ma", to which the semantic radical "口" (mouth) was added to indicate that its function is related to speech and sound. Unlike many characters, its traditional form is identical to its simplified form, as it was not subject to structural simplification. Over time, its meaning and usage have been specifically tied to its grammatical role as a sentence-final particle, initially conveying a sense of obvious expectation in questions and later expanding to soften assertions or express light emphasis in declarative statements, thus solidifying its place as a marker of mood and attitude rather than carrying concrete lexical meaning.
Example Sentences Hide
你告诉我嘛。
你帮帮我嘛。
这样做好嘛？
你快点来嘛！
嘛，你别着急。
你干嘛不去呢？
这件事嘛，我觉得没问题。
既然来了嘛，就好好玩吧。