HSK 4 · Food

小吃 xiǎochī “snack” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 小吃 means

  1. snack
  2. refreshments
  3. street food

How to say 小吃

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale小xiǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale吃chī1st tone, high and level

小吃 in a sentence

  1. 派对上有很多美味的小吃。

    Pàiduì shàng yǒu hěn duō měiwèi de xiǎochī.

    There were many delicious snacks at the party.

    Sentence #13549621 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 小吃 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 小 (xiǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
小xiǎosmall
  • 亅hook · jué
  • 八eight · bā

Memory aidThree small strokes, like grains: small.

The character 吃 (chī) with each of its parts in a different colour
吃chīto eat; to consume
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 乞to beg · qǐSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 乞 (qǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with chī.

How to write 小吃

小 3 strokes · 吃 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 小吃

Words with 小

小xiǎo · small小姐xiǎojiě · miss小学xiǎoxué · elementary school小学生xiǎoxuéshēng · primary school student小朋友xiǎopéngyǒu · child小时xiǎoshí · hour从小cóngxiǎo · from childhood小孩儿xiǎoháir · child小时候xiǎoshíhou · in one’s childhood小心xiǎoxīn · be careful

Words with 吃

吃chī · to eat好吃hǎochī · delicious吃惊chījīng · to be startled吃亏chīkuī · to lose out吃苦chīkǔ · to endure hardship吃力chīlì · strenuous

More words: Food & Drink

吃chī · to eat酸suān · sour汤tāng · soup糖táng · sugar味道wèidao · flavour西红柿xīhóngshì · tomato咸xián · salted盐yán · salt

FAQs

小吃 (xiǎochī) means “snack” or “refreshments”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it xiǎochī: xiǎo with a 3rd tone, then chī with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 小吃 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type xiaochi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 小吃 from the suggestions. Typing xiaochi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
小吃 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.