HSK 4 · Function Words

却 què “but” in Chinese

Traditional 卻

What 却 means

  1. but
  2. yet
  3. however
  4. while
  5. to go back
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to decline

How to say 却

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale却què4th tone, falling

却 in a sentence

  1. 他虽然穷，却很幸福。

    Tā suīrán qióng, què hěn xìngfú.

    Even though he’s poor, he’s happy.

    Sentence #793996 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我要的是茶，而他却给了我一杯咖啡。

    Wǒ yào de shì chá, ér tā què gěi le wǒ yì bēi kāfēi.

    He brought me coffee, when I had asked for tea.

    Sentence #335004 from Tatoeba

  3. 他保证过会来却没有来。

    Tā bǎozhèng guo huì lái què méiyǒu lái.

    He promised to come, but he didn’t come.

    Sentence #1328210 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 却 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 却 (què) with each of its parts in a different colour
却quèbut
  • 去to go away · qùSound part
  • 卩seal · jiéMeaning part

卩 hints at the meaning (seal); 去 (qù) hints at the sound. Compare it with què.

How to write 却

却 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 却

Words with 却

冷却lěngquè · to cool down

More words: Particles & Connectors

其次qícì · next其中qízhōng · among千万qiānwàn · be sure to全部quánbù · whole确实quèshí · indeed然而rán'ér · however任何rènhé · any仍然réngrán · still

FAQs

却 (què) means “but” or “yet”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it què: què with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 却 is written 卻. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type que with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 却 from the suggestions. Typing que into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
却 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.