买
to buy
mǎi
What does 买 mean?
买 (mǎi) is the Chinese verb 'to buy / purchase' — used the same way as English 'buy.' The most important thing for beginners to memorize is the contrast with its near-twin 卖 (mài, 'to sell'): same pronunciation root, only the tone differs (third tone vs fourth tone) and the bottom half of the character differs slightly. Mixing them up reverses your sentence entirely.
买 takes a direct object: 买东西 (buy things), 买一杯咖啡 (buy a coffee). To say what you bought something for, use 给 (gěi, 'for'): 我给妈妈买了礼物 ('I bought Mom a present'). Common compounds: 买东西 (go shopping, literally 'buy things'), 买单 (mǎidān, pay the bill at a restaurant — a Cantonese loan that's now standard nationwide), 购买 (gòumǎi, formal 'to purchase,' used in writing and contracts).
Character breakdown
to buy (simplified from 買, originally containing 貝 'cowrie shell,' an ancient form of money)
Memory hook: 买 (mǎi, third tone, falls then rises) — money goes DOWN out of your pocket. 卖 (mài, fourth tone, falls sharply) — your goods go OUT for cash.
Example sentences
我想买一杯咖啡。
Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yì bēi kāfēi.
I'd like to buy a cup of coffee.
spoken
他去买东西了。
Tā qù mǎi dōngxi le.
He went shopping.
neutral
这本书我买了。
Zhè běn shū wǒ mǎi le.
I bought this book.
neutral
你想买什么？
Nǐ xiǎng mǎi shénme?
What do you want to buy?
spoken
Common phrases with 买
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
买 appears in 3 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
Don't confuse 买 with
买 (mǎi, 3rd tone) = buy. 卖 (mài, 4th tone) = sell. The characters differ only in the top stroke (卖 has 十 on top). This is the single most common HSK 1 mix-up. Memorize them as a pair.
美 ('beautiful') looks somewhat similar at a glance but means something completely different. Just be careful when reading handwritten characters.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire by listening
Hear 买 in real Chinese, not in a flashcard.
Fluentide picks the next news episode at your level, so this word shows up again and again in real sentences. Pinyin, translation, and the episode where you heard it — every time. Free to start, no card.