HSK 6 · Transport

刹车 shāchē “to brake” in Chinese

Traditional 剎車

What 刹车 means

  1. to brake
  2. to brake (when driving)
  3. to stop
  4. to switch off
  5. to check (bad habits)

How to say 刹车

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale刹shā1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale车chē1st tone, high and level

刹车 in a sentence

  1. 刹车失灵了。

    Shāchē shīlíng le.

    The brakes failed.

    Sentence #348113 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 刹车的功能是使车停下。

    Shāchē de gōngnéng shì shǐ chē tíngxià.

    The function of the brake is to stop the car.

    Sentence #410844 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 除非他们事先修好刹车，我才会买车子。

    Chúfēi tāmen shìxiān xiūhǎo shāchē, wǒ cái huì mǎi chēzi.

    I’ll only buy the car if they fix the brakes first.

    Sentence #461524 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 刹车 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 刹 (chà) with each of its parts in a different colour
刹shāto brake
  • 杀to kill · shāSound part
  • 刂knife form of 刀 · dāoMeaning part

刂 hints at the meaning (knife); 杀 (shā) hints at the sound. Compare it with shā.

The character 车 (chē) with each of its parts in a different colour
车chēcar
  • 七seven · qī
  • 十ten · shí

Memory aidSimplified from 車: a cart seen from above, with its axle and two wheels.

How to write 刹车

刹 8 strokes · 车 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 刹车

Words with 刹

刹那chànà · instant

Words with 车

车chē · car火车huǒchē · train开车kāichē · to drive a car出租车chūzūchē · taxi车站chēzhàn · rail station打车dǎchē · to take a taxi (in town)火车站huǒchēzhàn · train station公交车gōngjiāochē · public transport vehicle公共汽车gōnggòng qìchē · bus汽车qìchē · car

More words: Everyday Things

码头mǎtou · dock逆行nìxíng · to go the wrong way (against traffic)桥梁qiáoliáng · bridge启程qǐchéng · to set out (on a journey)失事shīshì · (of a plane or ship) to crash隧道suìdào · tunnel停泊tíngbó · to anchor托运tuōyùn · to check in (luggage)

FAQs

刹车 (shāchē) means “to brake” or “to brake (when driving)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it shāchē: shā with a 1st tone, then chē with a 1st 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, 刹车 is written 剎車. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type shache with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 刹车 from the suggestions. Typing shache into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
刹车 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.