Example sentences
māo猫zài在shuì睡jué觉。
The cat is sleeping.
nǐ你xǐ喜huān欢māo猫ma吗？
Do you like cats?
The story behind the character
猫
Why does 猫 have 苗 (sprout) in it? Not because cats eat sprouts. Because a cat says "miao," which sounds like 苗. The person who coined the character matched it to the sound the animal makes. The 犭 on the left means "animal," the 苗 on the right gives the sound.