Meaning
car; a vehicle; machine; to shape with a lathe; vehicle on land
Chinese: 车辆；读 jū 时指象棋棋子。
Hear the Four Tones
The same syllable “che” becomes a different word in each tone. 车 is the 1st tone. Tap any tone to hear a native voice and see its pitch shape.
Stroke Order
Tap Animate to watch the strokes in order, or Practice to trace it yourself.
Common Words
- 汽车qì chēcar; automobile; bus
- 开车kāi chēto drive a car (or train etc); (slang) to post sexual content online; to make a sexual joke
- 出租车chū zū chētaxi; (Tw) rental car
- 火车huǒ chētrain
- 车站chē zhànrail station; bus stop
Example Sentence
上下班的时候车很多。Shàng xià bān de shí hou chē hěn duō.There are many cars during commuting hours.
上下班Shàng xià bānto start and finish work的deof时候shí houtime车chēcar很hěnvery多duōmany。
Go deeper
Where this character comes from
A pictograph of a chariot seen from above: the central box is the cab and the crossing line is the axle and wheels. Simplified from 車.
A way to remember it
A cab on an axle, seen from above — a vehicle.
Easy to confuse with
- 东‘East’: a different character, but its lower strokes can look similar at a glance.