HSK 1 · Common Verbs

去 qù “to go” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 去 means

  1. to go
  2. to go to (a place)
  3. (of a time etc) last
  4. just passed
  5. to send
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to remove

How to say 去

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale去qù4th tone, falling

去 in a sentence

  1. 我想知道她去哪儿了。

    Wǒ xiǎng zhīdao tā qù nǎr le.

    I want to know where she went.

    Sentence #334136 from Tatoeba

  2. 告诉我你为什么要去那儿。

    Gàosu wǒ nǐ wèishénme yào qù nàr.

    Tell me why you want to go there.

    Sentence #375980 from Tatoeba

  3. 为什么我应该去学校？

    Wèishénme wǒ yīnggāi qù xuéxiào?

    Why do I have to go to school?

    Sentence #3699939 from Tatoeba

How 去 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 去 (qù) with each of its parts in a different colour
去qùto go
  • 土earth · tǔ
  • 厶private · sī

Memory aidPicture someone leaving the ground 土 behind with a bag 厶: to go.

How to write 去

去 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 去

Words with 去

去年qùnián · last year出去chūqù · to go out回去huíqu · to return进去jìnqù · to go in上去shàngqù · to go up下去xiàqù · to go down过去guòqù · in the past去世qùshì · to pass away失去shīqù · to lose

More words: Common Verbs

是shì · to be下雨xiàyǔ · to rain有yǒu · to have在zài · to be at来lái · to come看kàn · to look听tīng · to listen说shuō · to speak

FAQs

去 (qù) means “to go” or “to go to (a place)”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it qù: qù with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 去 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type qu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 去 from the suggestions. Typing qu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
去 is an HSK 1 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.