What ㄠ means
In Zhuyin, ㄠ marks the vowel ending of a Mandarin syllable.
Zhuyin, also called Bopomofo, is a set of signs for spelling the pronunciation of Chinese characters. A syllable’s final is its vowel part, normally after its starting consonant. Pinyin, the Latin-letter system for writing Mandarin, spells this final ao; the sound starts with an open a and glides toward u.
The first version of the Mandarin Chinese Phonetic Symbols was devised in 1913 and released in 1918 to standardize pronunciation and support literacy. The ㄠ shape was adapted from the older Chinese character 幺, recorded in the Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese character dictionary. Later Bopomofo extensions also cover Minnan and Hakka, two other Chinese languages. As of 2026, Taiwan uses Zhuyin in teaching and input; mainland China mainly uses Pinyin for romanization.
A lone ㄠ needs context.
A lone ㄠ usually tells you only a pronunciation fragment, not a complete Mandarin word or a clear mood. If someone sends it by itself, ask which syllable or local shorthand they mean before reading a feeling into it.
Pronunciation notes and input are technical; a lone ㄠ in chat assumes the reader knows Zhuyin or a local shorthand.
If the recipient may not know Zhuyin, explain the phrase or local shorthand.
Who writes ㄠ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsA Mandarin pronunciation spelling: ㄠ follows ㄏ, while ˇ marks the third tone.
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
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Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
1Can ㄠ be slang in Taiwanese chat?
It can. A 2006 Taipei discussion records ㄠ as a less-common stand-in for an expression in Minnan, another Chinese language, in online phonetic writing. It is a local convention, not the default Mandarin reading.
More like this
8
Collections with ㄠ
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How to type or find ㄠ
- Also called
- Zhuyin · Bopomofo · Zhuyin Fuhao
- Search it as
- ㄠ · zhuyin ㄠ · bopomofo ㄠ · pinyin ao · ㄠ keyboard · ㄠ ㄡ difference
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ㄠ\3120Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.