HSK 6 · Verbs

掐 qiā “to pinch” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 掐 means

  1. to pinch
  2. to nip
  3. to pick (flowers)
  4. to pinch off
  5. to clutch

How to say 掐

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale掐qiā1st tone, high and level

掐 in a sentence

  1. 妈妈掐了一下我的脸。

    Māma qiā le yíxià wǒ de liǎn.

    Mum gave my cheek a little pinch.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 她在花园里掐了几朵花。

    Tā zài huāyuán lǐ qiā le jǐ duǒ huā.

    She picked a few flowers in the garden.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 掐 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 掐 (qiā) with each of its parts in a different colour
掐qiāto pick
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 臽pit · xiànSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 臽 (xiàn) hints at the sound. Compare it with qiā.

How to write 掐

掐 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 掐

More words: Common Verbs

破例pòlì · to make an exception扑pū · to pounce on铺pū · to spread普及pǔjí · to popularise牵qiān · to lead (by the hand or a rope)牵扯qiānchě · to involve抢救qiǎngjiù · to rescue强迫qiǎngpò · to force

FAQs

掐 (qiā) means “to pinch” or “to nip”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it qiā: qiā with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 掐 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qia with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 掐 from the suggestions. Typing qia into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
掐 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.