Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced qu

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced qu, including 去 qù, 区 qū / ōu, 取 qǔ, 趣 qù, 曲 qū / qǔ. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

In qu, the u is ü, and q is aspirated: round the lips, push a puff of air. It is “chü” with rounded lips, not “koo”.

Initial q

Like j, but aspirated.

Final u

Keep the lips rounded.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (去 qù, 区 qū / ōu, 取 qǔ, 趣 qù, 曲 qū / qǔ) and lock in their tones. 11 common characters share the sound qu, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

qu turns up here with 4 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 区, 曲, 趋… (6 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

区qū / ōuOu (surname); area; region; district; small; distinguish 曲qū / qǔbent; crooked; wrong; tune; song 趋qūto hasten; to hurry; walk fast 驱qūto expel; to urge on; to drive; to run quickly 屈qūbent; feel wronged 躯qūhuman body

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 渠 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

渠qúbig; stream or canal; drain; ditch

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 取, 娶 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

取qǔto take; to get; to choose; to fetch 娶qǔtake a wife

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 去, 趣 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

去qùto go; to leave; to remove 趣qùinteresting; to interest

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing qu inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

出去chū qùto go out 去年qù niánlast year 回去huí quto return; to go back 地区dì qūregion; area (informal or geographical term); prefecture (in China's administrative system)区别qū biédifference; to distinguish; to discriminate; to make a distinction 小区xiǎo qūhousing estate; community; neighborhood; (telecommunications) cell 取得qǔ déto acquire; to get; to obtain 采取cǎi qǔto adopt or carry out (measures, policies, course of action); to take 取消qǔ xiāoto cancel; to call off; to revoke; to rescind 兴趣xìng qùinterest (desire to know about sth); interest (thing in which one is interested); hobby

Characters

11 common characters in this group.

Character#1 去 qùto go; to leave; to removeTraditional: 去 Character#2 区 qū / ōuOu (surname); area; region; district; small; distinguishTraditional: 區 Character#3 取 qǔto take; to get; to choose; to fetchTraditional: 取 Character#4 趣 qùinteresting; to interestTraditional: 趣 Character#5 曲 qū / qǔbent; crooked; wrong; tune; songTraditional: 曲 Character#6 趋 qūto hasten; to hurry; walk fastTraditional: 趨 Character#7 驱 qūto expel; to urge on; to drive; to run quicklyTraditional: 駈 Character#8 屈 qūbent; feel wrongedTraditional: 屈 Character#9 躯 qūhuman bodyTraditional: 軀 Character#10 渠 qúbig; stream or canal; drain; ditchTraditional: 渠 Character#11 娶 qǔtake a wifeTraditional: 娶