Significado
Refusing to change one's mind.
Contexto cultural
In Myanmar, 'Hkaung ma' is often used by elders to discipline younger generations. It highlights the cultural emphasis on 'Narsay' (obedience). A child labeled as 'hkaung ma' is often seen as needing more guidance or 'training' in character. In a Burmese office, calling a superior 'hkaung ma' is a major social faux pas. It can lead to a loss of 'face' for the boss. Instead, employees might use indirect language to suggest a change of mind. The concept of 'hardness' in the mind is sometimes linked to 'Atta' (Ego). Buddhist teachings encourage a 'soft' or 'malleable' mind that can accept the truth of impermanence. Stubbornness is seen as a form of attachment to one's own views. Among modern Burmese youth, 'hkaung ma' can sometimes be used ironically or even with a hint of pride when referring to standing one's ground in a debate or following one's passion against traditional career paths.
The 'Stone' Trick
If you forget the word for stubborn, just think of a stone (kyauk). Since stones are hard (ma), and stubbornness is in the head (hkaung), you get 'hkaung ma'.
Elder Alert
Never use this phrase directly to someone older than you in Myanmar. It's better to say 'He doesn't want to change his mind' using more polite verbs.
Significado
Refusing to change one's mind.
The 'Stone' Trick
If you forget the word for stubborn, just think of a stone (kyauk). Since stones are hard (ma), and stubbornness is in the head (hkaung), you get 'hkaung ma'.
Elder Alert
Never use this phrase directly to someone older than you in Myanmar. It's better to say 'He doesn't want to change his mind' using more polite verbs.
Softening the Blow
Add 'နည်းနည်း' (nee nee - a little) before 'hkaung ma de' to make it sound less like an insult and more like a casual observation.
Ponte a prueba
Choose the correct word to complete the sentence: 'သူက ဘယ်သူ့စကားမှ နားမထောင်ဘူး၊ အရမ်း _______ တယ်။'
He doesn't listen to anyone; he is very _______.
'Hkaung ma' means stubborn, which fits the context of not listening.
Fill in the blank with the correct Burmese script.
Don't be stubborn! = ခေါင်း_______ပါနဲ့။
To say 'don't be stubborn,' you negate the verb 'ma' (hard) with 'ma' (not), resulting in 'ma-ma'.
Match the phrase to the most likely situation.
Phrase: 'သူက မှားနေတာတောင် ခေါင်းမာနေတုန်းပဲ။'
The phrase describes someone being stubborn even when they are wrong.
Complete the dialogue.
A: ဒီကလေးက စာမလုပ်ဘူး။ (This child won't study.) B: ဟုတ်တယ်၊ သူက အရမ်း _______။
Stubbornness is the most logical reason a child would refuse to study in this context.
🎉 Puntuación: /4
Ayudas visuales
Banco de ejercicios
4 ejerciciosHe doesn't listen to anyone; he is very _______.
'Hkaung ma' means stubborn, which fits the context of not listening.
Don't be stubborn! = ခေါင်း_______ပါနဲ့။
To say 'don't be stubborn,' you negate the verb 'ma' (hard) with 'ma' (not), resulting in 'ma-ma'.
Phrase: 'သူက မှားနေတာတောင် ခေါင်းမာနေတုန်းပဲ။'
The phrase describes someone being stubborn even when they are wrong.
A: ဒီကလေးက စာမလုပ်ဘူး။ (This child won't study.) B: ဟုတ်တယ်၊ သူက အရမ်း _______။
Stubbornness is the most logical reason a child would refuse to study in this context.
🎉 Puntuación: /4
Preguntas frecuentes
10 preguntas90% of the time, yes. However, between very close friends, it can be used as playful teasing.
Yes! Saying 'I am stubborn' (ကျွန်တော် ခေါင်းမာတယ်) is a common way to admit you are being difficult.
The most common opposite is 'စကားနားထောင်တယ်' (sagar nar htaung de - listens to words/obedient).
Add 'အရမ်း' (ayann) at the beginning: 'သူ အရမ်းခေါင်းမာတယ်' (He is very stubborn).
Yes, in writing use 'ခေါင်းမာသည်' (hkaung ma thi).
Yes! If a dog refuses to come when called, you can say 'ဒီခွေးက ခေါင်းမာတယ်' (This dog is stubborn).
No. A very smart person can be 'hkaung ma.' It's about attitude, not intelligence.
'Hkaung kae' is like saying someone is 'rock-solid stubborn'—it's much more intense.
Only if you are the boss! If you are an employee, it's too risky and informal.
No, it's a standard idiom that everyone from children to grandparents uses.
Frases relacionadas
ခေါင်းခဲ
specialized formExtremely stubborn (literally 'frozen head')
ဇွဲရှိ
contrastTo have perseverance
သဘောထားပျော့ပြောင်း
contrastFlexible/Easy-going
ဇွတ်တိုး
similarTo push through recklessly
