HSK 6 · Function Words

恰巧 qiàqiǎo “by chance” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 恰巧 means

  1. by chance
  2. coincidentally
  3. as chance would have it

How to say 恰巧

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale恰qià4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale巧qiǎo3rd tone, dipping

恰巧 in a sentence

  1. 她恰巧知道他的地址。

    Tā qiàqiǎo zhīdao tā de dìzhǐ.

    She happened to know his address.

    Sentence #1490469 from Tatoeba

  2. 恰巧我们有同样的生日。

    Qiàqiǎo wǒmen yǒu tóngyàng de shēngrì.

    We happen to have the same birthday.

    Sentence #5136717 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们恰巧上了同一辆公交车。

    Wǒmen qiàqiǎo shàng le tóng yí liàng gōngjiāochē.

    We happened to get on the same bus.

    Sentence #1361991 from Tatoeba

How 恰巧 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 恰 (qià) with each of its parts in a different colour
恰qiàexactly
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 合to combine · gěSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 合 (gě) hints at the sound. Compare it with qià.

The character 巧 (qiǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
巧qiǎoopportunely
  • 工work · gōngMeaning part
  • 丂part of the characterSound part

How to write 恰巧

恰 9 strokes · 巧 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 恰巧

Words with 恰

恰当qiàdàng · appropriate恰到好处qiàdàohǎochù · just right

Words with 巧

巧克力qiǎokèlì · chocolate (loanword)巧妙qiǎomiào · ingenious技巧jìqiǎo · skill

More words: Function Words & Grammar

哦ò · oh (indicating understanding)偏偏piānpiān · unexpectedly譬如pìrú · for example颇pō · rather起码qǐmǎ · at least仍旧réngjiù · still人家rénjia · other people任意rènyì · at will

FAQs

恰巧 (qiàqiǎo) means “by chance” or “coincidentally”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it qiàqiǎo: qià with a 4th tone, then qiǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 恰巧 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qiaqiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 恰巧 from the suggestions. Typing qiaqiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
恰巧 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.