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DICTIONARY

The Chinese word keyi - 可以 - kĕyĭ
(can in Chinese)



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Phonetic script (Hanyu Pinyin)

kĕyĭ

Listen to pronunciation
(Mandarin = standard Chinese without accent)

Note: In this special case, one of the tones is pronounced differently than the (written) Pinyin phonetic script indicates. This phenomenon is called Tone sandhi.

English translations

can, may, might, passable, surely, certainly,
could, should, not bad

Chinese characters:


Chinese characters  ( keyi / kĕyĭ ) with pronunciation (English translation: can )

For obtaining stroke order animations, visit the links to the individual characters below.
可以 ( keyi / kĕyĭ ) is composed of these characters: (ke) , (yi)
The traditional Chinese characters of kĕyĭ are identical with the modern (simplified) characters displayed above.
Chinese Pinyin example sentence with 可以 ( keyi / kĕyĭ ) Writing in Pinyin
Before using this Pinyin example sentence, consider that Chinese characters should always be your first choice in written communication.
If you cannot use Chinese characters, it is preferable to use the Pinyin with tones. Only use the Pinyin without tones if there's no other option (e.g. writing a text message from/to a mobile phone that doesn't support special characters such as ā, í, ŏ, ù).

Wo keyi wen ni ma?
Wŏ kĕyĭ wĕn nĭ ma?
 – English translation: Can I kiss you?

Topic
(no topic assigned)

Tags and additional information
(Meaning of individual characters, character components etc.)

to permit  |  because of
可以 ( keyi / kĕyĭ ) belongs to the 10 most common composed words in Chinese language (rank 10)
More words that mean can in Chinese
( 可 ), néng ( 能 ), nénggòu ( 能够 )
More words that mean may in Chinese
kān ( 堪 ), ( 可 ), kĕnéng ( 可能 )

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Version 5.40 / Last updated: 2023-07-28