HSK 4 · Verbs

抽烟 chōuyān “to smoke (a cigarette” in Chinese

Traditional 抽菸

What 抽烟 means

  1. to smoke (a cigarette, tobacco)
  2. to smoke (tobacco)

How to say 抽烟

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale抽chōu1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale烟yān1st tone, high and level

抽烟 in a sentence

  1. 这里不允许抽烟。

    Zhèlǐ bù yǔnxǔ chōuyān.

    Smoking isn’t allowed here.

    Sentence #8673668 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你应该少抽烟。

    Nǐ yīnggāi shǎo chōuyān.

    You should smoke less.

    Sentence #9415402 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你抽不抽烟？

    Nǐ chōu bu chōuyān?

    Do you smoke?

    Sentence #427174 from Tatoeba

How 抽烟 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 抽 (chōu) with each of its parts in a different colour
抽chōuto draw out; to pull out from in between
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 由cause · yóuSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 由 (yóu) hints at the sound. Compare it with chōu.

The character 烟 (yān) with each of its parts in a different colour
烟yāncigarette or pipe tobacco
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part
  • 因cause · yīnSound part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 因 (yīn) hints at the sound. Compare it with yān.

How to write 抽烟

抽 8 strokes · 烟 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 抽烟

Words with 抽

抽象chōuxiàng · abstract抽屉chōuti · drawer

Words with 烟

炊烟chuīyān · smoke from cooking fires烟花爆竹yānhuābàozhú · fireworks and firecrackers

More words: Common Verbs

尝cháng · to taste超过chāoguò · to surpass成为chéngwéi · to become乘坐chéngzuò · to ride (in a vehicle)出生chūshēng · to be born传真chuánzhēn · fax出现chūxiàn · to appear存cún · to exist

FAQs

抽烟 (chōuyān) means “to smoke (a cigarette, tobacco)” or “to smoke (tobacco)”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it chōuyān: chōu with a 1st tone, then yān 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, 抽烟 is written 抽菸. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chouyan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 抽烟 from the suggestions. Typing chouyan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
抽烟 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.