HSK 5 · Transport

汽油 qìyóu “petrol” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 汽油 means

  1. petrol

How to say 汽油

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale汽qì4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale油yóu2nd tone, rising

汽油 in a sentence

  1. 没汽油了。

    Méi qìyóu le.

    We’ve run out of petrol.

    Sentence #1401789 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 汽油 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 汽 (qì) with each of its parts in a different colour
汽qìsteam
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 气air · qì

Memory aidWater 氵 turned into air 气: steam.

The character 油 (yóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
油yóuoil
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 由cause · yóuSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 由 (yóu) hints at the sound. Compare it with yóu.

How to write 汽油

汽 7 strokes · 油 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 汽油

Words with 汽

公共汽车gōnggòng qìchē · bus汽车qìchē · car

Words with 油

油yóu · oil加油jiāyóu · to cheer on加油站jiāyóuzhàn · petrol station酱油jiàngyóu · soy sauce油炸yóuzhá · to deep fry油腻yóunì · greasy石油shíyóu · oil柴油cháiyóu · diesel油漆yóuqī · paint

More words: Everyday Things

救护车jiùhùchē · ambulance卡车kǎchē · truck列车lièchē · train摩托车mótuōchē · motorbike时差shíchā · time difference行人xíngrén · pedestrian长途chángtú · long distance舱cāng · cabin (of a ship or plane)

FAQs

汽油 (qìyóu) means “petrol”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it qìyóu: qì with a 4th tone, then yóu with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 汽油 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qiyou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 汽油 from the suggestions. Typing qiyou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
汽油 is an HSK 5 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.