HSK 4 · Objects

公里 gōnglǐ “kilometre” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 公里 means

  1. kilometre

How to say 公里

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale公gōng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale里lǐ3rd tone, dipping

公里 in a sentence

  1. 我今天走了十公里。

    Wǒ jīntiān zǒu le shí gōnglǐ.

    I walked ten kilometres today.

    Sentence #1984991 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 学校离我家有五公里远。

    Xuéxiào lí wǒ jiā yǒu wǔ gōnglǐ yuǎn.

    The school is five kilometres from my home.

    Sentence #899980 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  3. 我们跑了三公里。

    Wǒmen pǎo le sān gōnglǐ.

    We ran three kilometres.

    Sentence #8387376 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 公里 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 公 (gōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
公gōngpublic
  • 八eight · bā
  • 厶private · sī

Memory aidAn old explanation: share out 八 what is private 厶, and it becomes public.

The character 里 (lǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
里lǐlining
  • 田field · tián
  • 土earth · tǔ

Memory aidFields 田 and earth 土: a village. As a simplified character it also stands for 裏, “inside”.

How to write 公里

公 4 strokes · 里 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 公里

Words with 公

公司gōngsī · company公交车gōngjiāochē · public transport vehicle公共汽车gōnggòng qìchē · bus公斤gōngjīn · kilogram公园gōngyuán · public park办公室bàngōngshì · office高速公路gāosùgōnglù · motorway外公wàigōng · grandpa (mother’s father)公元gōngyuán · CE (Common Era)公寓gōngyù · apartment building

Words with 里

里lǐ · inside那里nàli · there这里zhèlǐ · here哪里nǎlǐ · where?里面lǐmiàn · inside心里xīnlǐ · in one’s heart里程碑lǐchéngbēi · milestone

More words: Everyday Things

动作dòngzuò · movement方法fāngfǎ · method方面fāngmiàn · respect方向fāngxiàng · direction观众guānzhòng · spectators过程guòchéng · course of events好处hǎochu · benefit号码hàomǎ · number

FAQs

公里 (gōnglǐ) means “kilometre”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it gōnglǐ: gōng with a 1st tone, then lǐ with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 公里 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gongli with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 公里 from the suggestions. Typing gongli into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
公里 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.