HSK 4 · Adjectives

空 kōng “empty” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 空 means

  1. empty
  2. sky
  3. (kòng) free time
  4. air
  5. in vain

How to say 空

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale空kōng1st tone, high and level

空 in a sentence

  1. 冰箱是空的。

    Bīngxiāng shì kōng de.

    The fridge is empty.

    Sentence #13524024 from Tatoeba

  2. 你明天下午有空吗？

    Nǐ míngtiān xiàwǔ yǒu kòng ma?

    Are you free tomorrow afternoon?

    Sentence #5763029 from Tatoeba

  3. 为什么天空是蓝的？

    Wèishénme tiānkōng shì lán de?

    Why is the sky blue?

    Sentence #13954310 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 空 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 空 (kōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
空kōngempty
  • 穴cave · xuéMeaning part
  • 工work · gōngSound part

穴 hints at the meaning (cave); 工 (gōng) hints at the sound. Compare it with kōng.

How to write 空

空 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 空

Words with 空

空调kōngtiáo · air conditioning填空tiánkòng · to fill in the blanks (on a form or test)空气kōngqì · air空闲kòngxián · free time天空tiānkōng · sky空间kōngjiān · space空想kōngxiǎng · fantasy空洞kōngdòng · empty空虚kōngxū · empty太空tàikōng · outer space

More words: Adjectives

积极jījí · active假jiǎ · false精彩jīngcǎi · wonderful科学kēxué · science困难kùnnan · difficult懒lǎn · lazy冷静lěngjìng · calm礼貌lǐmào · courtesy

FAQs

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