贸 (mào) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

贸

mào[mao4]Tone 4

trade

HSK 5

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貿

Guru Deep Dive

English · trade

Cached lesson

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Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:9

Writing Balance Rule: The top component (卯) should be slightly wider and crowned gracefully over the bottom component (贝), keeping the central vertical axis perfectly aligned.

1. Meaning

commerce, trade

exchangecommercial

Noun / Combining formFormal / LiteraryBound morpheme#business#economy#society

Sample Usage

对外贸易很重要。
duì wài mào yì hěn zhòng yào.
Foreign trade is very important.
我们要促进两国经贸合作。
wǒ men yào cù jìn liǎng guó jīng mào hé zuò.
We need to promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

2. Sound

/[maʊ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

贸

màomao4

`(51)

=mào

Initial Consonant

Type: Bilabial Nasal

Sounds like: m sound like in 'mother'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Nasal resonance through nostrils.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips pressed together gently to voice the nasal 'm', then opening for the vowel.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -ao rhymes with 'ow' in 'cow'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ow'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, similar to an abrupt command or emphatic 'Down!' in English.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing Tone 4 (mào) with Tone 2 (máo) or Tone 3 (mǎo). Make sure to start high and drop decisively without dipping first.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 is a sharp, authoritative nod straight down, like chopping wood or saying 'NO!' firmly.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 9 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The top component (卯) should be slightly wider and crowned gracefully over the bottom component (贝), keeping the central vertical axis perfectly aligned.

4. Components

Radical 贝 · Shell / Money radical (Money, wealth, currency, valuables)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 贝 (Indicates that trade involves money, valuables, and goods.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 卯 (original sound: mào)

The character combines 卯 (mào, phonetic and ancient mortar/split shape) at the top and 贝 (bèi, shell/money) at the bottom. Trading goods (shell currency) requires splitting or exchanging items.

卯 Provides the sound 'mào' and a sense of dividing or fitting together
贝 Provides the meaning of wealth, currency, and commerce

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

12· Phonetic Root: 卯 (mǎo)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally created as a phono-semantic compound where 卯 provided the pronunciation and 贝 (cowrie shell money) denoted the commercial aspect of exchanging valuable goods.

Semantic Evolution: Has consistently maintained the core concept of commercial exchange and trade from classical Chinese up to modern economic vocabulary.

Cowrie shells (贝) were used as ancient Chinese currency, which is why financial and trade characters almost always contain this radical.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

mậu

Mandarin Tone 4 (falling) corresponds closely to Vietnamese sắc or nặng tone direction in historical borrowings.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ボウ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

무

Sound Shift Bridge: The initial 'm' and final '-ao' have been preserved across East Asian cultural vocabulary spheres.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

In the marketplace, merchants use cowrie shell money (贝) to trade goods right at the stroke of the morning卯 hour (卯).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

茂

màolush, luxuriantAdd the grass radical (艹) on top for lush plants.

铆

mǎorivetAdd the metal radical (钅) on the left for metal fasteners.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

帽(mào)

Hat (帽) has the cloth/apparel radical (巾) on the left, whereas trade (贸) has the money radical (贝) at the bottom.

留(liú)

To stay/remain (留) features fields and a completely different structure on top.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

两国之间的经[___]往来十分频繁。

Clue: mào

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 贸 (mào) with 帽 (mào, hat) because they share the same sound and the 卯 component, failing to notice whether the radical indicates clothing (巾) or money/trade (贝).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 贸 combined with 易 as 贸易, what does it mean?

Production: How do you write the character for 'trade' (mào) using the money radical at the bottom?

贸màotrade

Speed:

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