How to say "to want" in Chinese
要
yàoto wantPart of speech: Verbs
"to want" in Chinese is 要 — pronounced yào.
In a sentence
- 你好!你要吃什么?Nǐ hǎo! Nǐ yào chī shénme?Hello! What would you like to eat?
- 好的!还要别的吗?Hǎo de! Hái yào biéde ma?All right! Anything else?
- 你好!你要买什么?Nǐ hǎo! Nǐ yào mǎi shénme?Hello! What would you like to buy?
Sentence patterns that use it
- 我要买___。I want to buy ___.
- 我要吃___。I want to eat ___.
- 我要去___。I want to go to ___.
- 我感冒了。I have a cold.
- 我要寄___。I want to send ___.
- 我要 ___。I want ___
Words that share a character
Hear the tones, then say it back
Reading a word is the easy half. In HanQuest you meet 要 inside a quest — spoken by a villager, then checked against your own voice.
Play free in your browserAll 376 HSK 1 words ›Free to read
Keep going.
No sign-up, no paywall. The full word list, character breakdowns and sentence patterns from Qingshan Village — browse them before you play, or use them as a reference after.