mài
to sell
我在商店里买了一件衣服。
Wǒ zài shāngdiàn lǐ mǎi le yī jiàn yīfu.
I bought a piece of clothing in the store.
他卖掉了他的房子。
Tā mài diào le tā de fángzi.
He sold his house.
我们去超市买东西吧。
Wǒmen qù chāoshì mǎi dōngxi ba.
Let's go to the supermarket to buy something.
买 (mǎi)
buy
送 (sòng)
give
Track your progress, master characters, and achieve your Chinese language goals.
Get Started Free
The Chinese character 卖 (mài) for "to sell" is composed of two parts: the radical 壳 (ké) and the phonetic component 买 (mǎi). The radical 壳, which means "shell" or "husk", is a pictograph depicting a container with a lid. It is used in other characters related to buying and selling, such as 买 (mǎi, "to buy") and 价 (jià, "price"). The phonetic component 买, which is pronounced similarly to 卖, is a phonetic loan character. It was originally used to represent the word for "to buy", but over time it came to be used to represent the word for "to sell" as well. The combination of the radical 壳 and the phonetic component 买 creates the character 卖, which represents the concept of "to sell".
