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.
US 没有买 Greenland。
The US did not buy Greenland.
Greenland Deal Unsigned; Sovereignty Stays
苹果说，这个手机现在不能买。
Apple says this phone cannot be bought now.
iPhone Duo Starts at $1,999; On Sale Oct 23
这个东西为什么可以买东西？
Why can this thing buy things?
Pokémon Cards as Doomsday Money
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.
FAQ
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.