HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Everyday Verbs

开车 kāichē “to drive a car” in Chinese

Traditional 開車

What 开车 means

  1. to drive a car
  2. to drive a car (or train etc)

How to say 开车

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale开kāi1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale车chē1st tone, high and level

开车 in a sentence

  1. 我哥哥会开车。

    Wǒ gēge huì kāichē.

    My older brother knows how to drive.

    Sentence #973034 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你喜欢开车吗？

    Nǐ xǐhuan kāichē ma?

    Do you like driving?

    Sentence #877489 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 今天我是开车上班的。

    Jīntiān wǒ shì kāichē shàngbān de.

    I drove to work today.

    Sentence #844685 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 开车 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.

The character 车 (chē) with each of its parts in a different colour
车chēcar
  • 七seven · qī
  • 十ten · shí

Memory aidSimplified from 車: a cart seen from above, with its axle and two wheels.

How to write 开车

开 4 strokes · 车 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 开车

Words with 开

开kāi · to open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

Words with 车

车chē · car火车huǒchē · train出租车chūzūchē · taxi车站chēzhàn · rail station打车dǎchē · to take a taxi (in town)火车站huǒchēzhàn · train station公交车gōngjiāochē · public transport vehicle公共汽车gōnggòng qìchē · bus汽车qìchē · car自行车zìxíngchē · bike

More words: Everyday Verbs

唱chàng · to sing睡shuì · to sleep听见tīngjiàn · to hear做饭zuòfàn · to prepare a meal帮bāng · to help留下liúxia · to leave behind待dāi · to stay值zhí · to be worth

FAQs

开车 (kāichē) means “to drive a car” or “to drive a car (or train etc)”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it kāichē: kāi with a 1st tone, then chē 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, 开车 is written 開車. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kaiche with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 开车 from the suggestions. Typing kaiche into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
开车 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 word list. It is not on the older 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.