HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Things

油 yóu “oil” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 油 means

  1. oil
  2. fat
  3. petrol
  4. grease
  5. petroleum
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to apply tung oil, paint or varnish
  • oily

How to say 油

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale油yóu2nd tone, rising

油 in a sentence

  1. 我的衣服被油弄脏了。

    Wǒ de yīfu bèi yóu nòngzāng le.

    I got oil on my clothes.

    Sentence #788857 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 油和水不能混合。

    Yóu hé shuǐ bùnéng hùnhé.

    Oil and water don’t mix.

    Sentence #347395 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我们在下个加油站停一下。

    Wǒmen zài xià ge jiāyóuzhàn tíng yíxià.

    Let’s stop at the next petrol station.

    Sentence #333010 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 油 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 油 (yóu) with each of its parts in a different colour
油yóuoil
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 由cause · yóuSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 由 (yóu) hints at the sound. Compare it with yóu.

How to write 油

油 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 油

Words with 油

加油jiāyóu · to cheer on加油站jiāyóuzhàn · petrol station酱油jiàngyóu · soy sauce油炸yóuzhá · to deep fry汽油qìyóu · petrol油腻yóunì · greasy石油shíyóu · oil柴油cháiyóu · diesel油漆yóuqī · paint

More words: Things & Objects

电话diànhuà · telephone男朋友nánpéngyou · boyfriend女朋友nǚpéngyou · girlfriend事shì · matter雨衣yǔyī · raincoat电子书diànzǐshū · e-book银行卡yínhángkǎ · bank card图tú · picture

FAQs

油 (yóu) means “oil” or “fat”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it yóu: yóu with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 油 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type you with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 油 from the suggestions. Typing you into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
油 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 word list. It is not on the older 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.