HSK 4 · Body

咳嗽 késou “to cough” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 咳嗽 means

  1. to cough

Measure word 阵 zhèn · 一阵咳嗽 yí zhèn késou

How to say 咳嗽

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale咳ké2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own嗽souneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

咳嗽 in a sentence

  1. 你咳嗽吗？

    Nǐ késou ma?

    Do you have a cough?

    Sentence #355107 from Tatoeba

  2. 咳嗽的时候会痛吗？

    Késou de shíhou huì tòng ma?

    Does it hurt when you cough?

    Sentence #12914803 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 你咳嗽、打喷嚏或打哈欠的时候要捂住你的嘴。

    Nǐ késou, dǎpēntì huò dǎhāqian de shíhou yào wǔzhù nǐ de zuǐ.

    Cover your mouth when you cough, sneeze or yawn.

    Sentence #401028 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 咳嗽 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 咳 (ké) with each of its parts in a different colour
咳kécough
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 亥part of the characterSound part
The character 嗽 (sòu) with each of its parts in a different colour
嗽sòuto coughlight in 咳嗽
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 欶to suck · shuòSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 欶 (shuò) hints at the sound. Compare it with sou.

How to write 咳嗽

咳 9 strokes · 嗽 14 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

咳嗽 (késou) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 咳嗽 (késou). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 咳嗽

More words: People, Body & Health

友谊yǒuyì · companionship作者zuòzhě · author肚子dùzi · belly胳膊gēbo · arm汗hàn · perspiration力气lìqi · strength毛máo · hair皮肤pífū · skin

FAQs

咳嗽 (késou) means “to cough”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it késou: ké with a 2nd tone, then sou with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 咳嗽 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 阵 (zhèn). For example, one to cough is 一阵咳嗽 (yí zhèn késou).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kesou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 咳嗽 from the suggestions. Typing kesou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
咳嗽 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.