HSK 6 · Function Words

呵 hē “to breathe out” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 呵 means

  1. to breathe out
  2. to scold
  3. ha (laughter)
  4. (bound form) to scold
  5. to expel breath
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (onom.) laughter (usu. reduplicated)
  • interjection of surprise

How to say 呵

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale呵hē1st tone, high and level

呵 in a sentence

  1. 我始终不能理解看足球的乐趣,呵呵。

    Wǒ shǐzhōng bùnéng lǐjiě kàn zúqiú de lèqù, hēhē.

    I’ve never been able to see the fun in watching football, haha.

    Sentence #6962933 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 呵 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 呵 (hē) with each of its parts in a different colour
呵hēto scold
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 可may · kěSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 可 (kě) hints at the sound. Compare it with hē.

How to write 呵

呵 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 呵

More words: Function Words & Grammar

FAQs

呵 (hē) means “to breathe out” or “to scold”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it hē: hē with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 呵 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type he with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 呵 from the suggestions. Typing he into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
呵 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 from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.