Standard (simplified) Chinese, mainland stroke order
Watch the animation, study each numbered stroke below, then print the tracing sheet to practice by hand. Correct stroke order makes your handwriting faster, neater, and easier to memorize.
Character evolution: 妈 over 3,000 years
Oracle bone 甲骨文
c. 1250–1050 BC
No attested oracle bone form in our sources
→
Bronze 金文
c. 1000–221 BC
No attested bronze form in our sources
→
Small seal 小篆
221 BC –
No attested small seal form in our sources
→
Regular script 楷书
modern standard
妈
Arphic Public License, via Make Me a Hanzi
妈 (mā) is a Phono-semantic compound (形声) — one part gives the meaning, another gives the sound. woman. No ancient form of 妈 survives in our sources; many characters were coined after the seal-script era or their early forms have not been excavated. The small seal script standardized under the Qin dynasty is the ancestor of every modern form; clerical script (隶书) later flattened its curves into straight strokes, giving the regular script we write today. Glyphs: Wikimedia Commons Ancient Chinese Characters project — per-file credits on our glyph attribution page.
How this character works
Formation
形声 Phono-semantic compound — one part gives the meaning, another gives the sound
First cell shows the full character lightly; the following cells reveal one more stroke at a time. Print and trace with a pencil.
Frequently asked questions
How many strokes does 妈 have?
The Chinese character 妈 (mā) is written with 6 strokes. The correct stroke order is shown step by step above.
What is the pinyin of 妈?
The pinyin of 妈 is "mā" (ma without tone marks).
How do you write 妈 in Chinese?
Write 妈 by following the 6-step stroke order animation on this page, then practice with the printable tracing worksheet. Each stroke is numbered and drawn in the standard order used in mainland China.