Kilo Lingo

(huì) - can, to know how to; will; meeting in Mandarin

huì

Traditional: 會

Line drawing of 会
Coloured illustration of 会
HSK 1
#31 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

can, to know how to; will; meeting

Word origin

会 (huì) means 'can, to know how to; meeting'. It is the simplified form of 會, which depicted a lid over a container of gathered things, conveying the idea of coming together; the senses of 'meeting' and 'being able' developed from this.

Origin
compound
Root
会 (simplified from 會, a lid over gathered contents, suggesting coming together)

Stroke order

Stroke order for 会

会

Examples

？

Can you speak Chinese?

。

He will come tomorrow.

。

I do not know how to swim.

语yǔ言yán。

She speaks three languages.

雨yǔ。

It may rain this afternoon.

会 (huì) carries two primary modal meanings: ability acquired through learning (knowing how to do something) and future probability or prediction (something will happen). This distinguishes it from 能 (néng), which expresses capacity or permission in the moment rather than learned skill or future expectation.

The traditional form 会 shows a complex structure combining "gathering" with a phonetic element - the character originally meant "to gather, to meet," a meaning preserved in 开会 (kāihuì, to hold a meeting) and 机会 (jīhuì, opportunity). Simplified to 会, it now most commonly functions as the modal "can/will" in everyday speech.

Appears in 11 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 会.

不会bú huìcannot, does not know how to; will not机会jī huìopportunity, chance, occasion约会yuē huìdate, appointment, rendezvous一会儿yí huì era moment, a little while, in a moment一会yí huìa moment, a little while将会jiāng huìwill, shall, be going to只会zhī huìcan only, will only社会shè huìsociety, social会议huì yìmeeting, conference学会xué huìto learn (to master), to learn how to聚会jù huìgathering, get-together, party

Used in

Stories

(7)

Grammar articles

(12)

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This word is part of lesson 1.