HSK 2 · Adjectives

快 kuài “fast” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 快 means

  1. fast
  2. rapid
  3. quick
  4. speed
  5. rate
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • soon
  • almost

How to say 快

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale快kuài4th tone, falling

快 in a sentence

  1. 他跑得非常快。

    Tā pǎo de fēicháng kuài.

    He runs very fast.

    Sentence #818163 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 别吃得这么快。

    Bié chī de zhème kuài.

    Don’t eat so fast.

    Sentence #6678404 from Tatoeba

  3. 快 can also mean “soon”

    我的生日就快到了。

    Wǒ de shēngrì jiù kuài dào le.

    My birthday is coming up soon.

    Sentence #884638 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 快 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 快 (kuài) with each of its parts in a different colour
快kuàirapid
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīn
  • 夬decisive · guài

Memory aidHeart 忄 with 夬 (guài) for the sound: happy, and fast.

How to write 快

快 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 快

Words with 快

快乐kuàilè · happy快要kuàiyào · about to凉快liángkuai · nice and cold愉快yúkuài · cheerful痛快tòngkuài · delighted赶快gǎnkuài · quickly尽快jǐnkuài · as soon as possible爽快shuǎngkuài · frank快活kuàihuo · happy

More words: Adjectives

好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing快乐kuàilè · happy慢màn · slow长cháng · long高gāo · tall远yuǎn · far近jìn · near

FAQs

快 (kuài) means “fast” or “rapid”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it kuài: kuài with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 快 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type kuai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 快 from the suggestions. Typing kuai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
快 is an HSK 2 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.