HSK 1 · Common Verbs

开 kāi “to open” in Chinese

Traditional 開

What 开 means

  1. to open, drive
  2. to open (transitive or intransitive)
  3. (of ships, vehicles, troops etc) to start
  4. to turn on
  5. to put in operation
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to operate
  • to run
  • to boil
  • to write out (a prescription, check, invoice etc)
  • (directional complement) away
  • off

How to say 开

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale开kāi1st tone, high and level

开 in a sentence

  1. 开电视。

    Kāi diànshì.

    Turn on the TV.

    Sentence #472986 from Tatoeba

  2. 开 can also mean “to drive”

    你让她开你的车了？

    Nǐ ràng tā kāi nǐ de chē le?

    Did you let her drive your car?

    Sentence #13943565 from Tatoeba

How 开 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 开 (kāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
开kāito open
  • 一one · yī
  • 廾two hands · gǒng

Memory aidSimplified from 開: two hands lifting the bar of a gate 門: to open.

How to write 开

开 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 开

Words with 开

开车kāichē · to drive a car开始kāishǐ · to begin开学kāixué · to start a new school term打开dǎkāi · to open离开líkāi · leave开会kāihuì · to have a meeting开花kāihuā · to bloom分开fēnkāi · to separate开机kāijī · to switch on (a device)开心kāixīn · to feel happy

More words: Common Verbs

住zhù · to live打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call睡觉shuìjiào · to sleep买mǎi · to buy学习xuéxí · to study请qǐng · please能néng · can会huì · can

FAQs

开 (kāi) means “to open, drive” or “to open (transitive or intransitive)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it kāi: kāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 开 is written 開. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 开 from the suggestions. Typing kai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
开 is an HSK 1 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.