要 (yào)
to want; to need; will; important
How 要 is written
- Strokes
- 9
- Radical
- 覀 — west
- Traditional
- 要
- Simplified
- 要 (unchanged)
Components
- 覀 west
- 女 woman
要 has 2 readings
The pronunciation changes with the meaning, so the reading has to be learned per word.
- yāo
- to demand; to request; to coerce
- yào
- important; vital; to want; will
Common words using 要
- 主要 zhǔyào
- main; principal; major
- 只要 zhǐyào
- if only; so long as
- 必要 bìyào
- necessary; essential; indispensable
- 想要 xiǎngyào
- to want to; to feel like; to fancy
- 要是 yàoshi
- if
- 要求 yāoqiú
- to request; to require; to stake a claim
- 要麼 yàome
- or; either one or the other
- 重要 zhòngyào
- important; significant; major
- 需要 xūyào
- to need; to want; to demand
- 偏要 piānyào
- to insist on doing sth; must do it, despite everything
- 切要 qièyào
- essential; extremely important
- 勢要 shìyào
- influential figure; powerful person
要 in a sentence
我想要喝一杯半糖少冰的珍珠奶茶。
Wǒ xiǎng yào hē yì bēi bàntáng shǎobīng de zhēnzhū nǎichá.
“I want to drink a bubble tea with half sugar and less ice.”
How common is 要?
要 is the 26th most frequent character in written Chinese. Characters up to this rank account for about 22.5% of all running text.
Characters that appear with 要
Master 要 and 5,000 others.
Flashcards and Writing Practice. Every single character in A Course in Contemporary Chinese 當代中文課程.
要
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