买
to buy
HSK level
- Pinyin
- mǎi
- Part of speech
- verb
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 6
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 4
Stroke order for 买
买 is written with 6 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
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).
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.
Hear 买 in real episodes
买 appears in 4 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
欠钱，是你买了东西，要给的钱，还没有给。
Owing money means you bought something, and the money you need to pay has not been paid yet.
A Senator Pays a Bakery Bill After Six Years and a Viral Post
Trader Joe's卖一个小袋子，不到三美元，很多人想买。
Trader Joe's sells a small bag for less than three dollars, and many people want to buy it.
Coffee Shops Turn Tote Bags Into Branding
现在，很多人买了一个小东西，来刮舌头。
Now, lots of people have bought a little tool to scrape their tongues.
Tongue Scrapers Beat Toothbrushes at Fighting Bad Breath — and Your Tongue's Bacteria May Help Lower Your Blood Pressure
很多人买了新的树，他们都想种。
Lots of people have bought the new trees, and they all want to plant them.
Citrus Greening Wiped Out 95% of Florida's Oranges. Can Gene Editing Bring Them Back?
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
Synonyms
购买 is formal 'to purchase' — used in writing, contracts, e-commerce sites, and news. In speech, always 买. Don't say 我去购买东西 — sounds like a robot.
买下 means 'to buy up / acquire' — usually for big-ticket items (a house, a company) or to emphasize completion. 买 is the everyday verb.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 买 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
You just saw 买 in 4 episodes. Fluentide keeps feeding you news episodes at your level, so this word — and thousands like it — resurface in real sentences until they stick. Full pinyin and translation every time. Free to start.