HSK 3 · Verbs

聊天 liáotiān “to chat” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 聊天 means

  1. to chat
  2. to gossip

How to say 聊天

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale聊liáo2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale天tiān1st tone, high and level

聊天 in a sentence

  1. 他们在聊天。

    Tāmen zài liáotiān.

    They’re chatting.

    Sentence #11510522 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我现在不能和你聊天。

    Wǒ xiànzài bùnéng hé nǐ liáotiān.

    I can’t chat with you right now.

    Sentence #13876782 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我要么去看电影，要么和朋友聊天。

    Wǒ yàome qù kàn diànyǐng, yàome hé péngyou liáotiān.

    I’ll either go and see a film or chat with my friends.

    Sentence #380679 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 聊天 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 聊 (liáo) with each of its parts in a different colour
聊liáoto chat
  • 耳ear · ěrMeaning part
  • 卯part of the characterSound part
The character 天 (tiān) with each of its parts in a different colour
天tiānday
  • 一one · yī
  • 大big · dà

Memory aidA person 大 with the sky 一 above: sky, heaven, day.

How to write 聊天

聊 11 strokes · 天 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 聊天

Words with 聊

聊liáo · to chat聊天儿liáotiānr · to chat无聊wúliáo · bored

Words with 天

天tiān · day今天jīntiān · today明天míngtiān · tomorrow昨天zuótiān · yesterday天气tiānqì · weather白天báitiān · daytime星期天Xīngqītiān · Sunday夏天xiàtiān · summer冬天dōngtiān · winter春天chūntiān · spring (season)

More words: Thinking & Talking

讲jiǎng · to talk解决jiějué · settle a dispute决定juédìng · decide练习liànxí · practice了解liǎojiě · comprehend明白míngbai · clear难过nánguò · be grieved认为rènwéi · believe

FAQs

聊天 (liáotiān) means “to chat” or “to gossip”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it liáotiān: liáo with a 2nd tone, then tiān with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 聊天 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type liaotian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 聊天 from the suggestions. Typing liaotian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
聊天 is an HSK 3 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.