Kilo Lingo

(kě) - may, can, to approve in Mandarin

kě

Traditional: 可

Line drawing of 可
Coloured illustration of 可
HSK 3
#163 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

may, can, to approve

Word origin

可 means may, can or to approve. It is an ideograph combining 丁 with 口 'mouth'; one traditional reading takes it as approval voiced aloud, a permitting word.

Origin
ideograph
Root
口 (mouth) + 丁

Stroke order

Stroke order for 可

可

Examples

？

Is it okay?

。

This is really not good.

。

But I don't want to go.

。

This child is really clever.

。

He can finally rest.

可 (kě) means may, can, to approve. It is used as a verb in everyday Mandarin speech.

Appears in 11 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 可.

可以kě yǐcan, may (permission or possibility)可能kě néngpossibly, maybe; possible可是kě shìbut, however, yet可爱kě àicute, adorable, lovely可怕kě pàfrightening, terrible, scary可怜kě liánpitiful, poor, pathetic可不是kě bú shìexactly, isn't it just可不kě bùabsolutely, you bet, isn't it just可惜kě xīwhat a pity, unfortunately, regrettable不可bù kěcannot, must not可恶kě wùdetestable, hateful, damnable

Used in

Stories

(1)

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This word is part of lesson 4.