妈妈好
māma hǎo
The English phrase "hello mommy" is translated into Chinese as 妈妈好 (māma hǎo).
This phrase is a greeting used by a child to say hello to their mother.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Cantonese, 妈咪 is frequently used to address moms.
How do you pronounce it?
māma hǎo
Did you know?
- The word 妈 is a phono-semantic compound where the left side is the radical for 'woman' and the right side 马 meaning 'horse' provides the sound.
- In Chinese culture, the concept of 'mother' extends beyond biological parents to include 干妈 or 'dry mother', a woman who is formally adopted as a spiritual or social mother.
- In ancient China, the word for 'mother' was often 母, and the repetitive 妈妈 form only became common as the language evolved to sound more like a child's first babbles.
Example conversation
A child greets his mother upon returning home.
- 佳怡 Jiayi妈妈好！Māma hǎo!Hello mommy!
- 浩然 Haoran你好，浩然。Nǐ hǎo, Hàorán.Hello, Haoran.
- 佳怡 Jiayi我今天在学校很开心。Wǒ jīntiān zài xuéxiào hěn kāixīn.I was very happy at school today.
- 浩然 Haoran太好了，佳怡也这么说。Tài hǎo le, Jiāyí yě zhème shuō.That's great, Jiayi said so too.
