要
yàoyāo HSK1

want

要 yào frequency
must auxiliary
must; should; ought to; expresses a need or obligation

我所要做的就是等待。

wǒ suǒ yào zuò de jiù​shì děng​dài.

All I have to do is wait.

will auxiliary
will; shall; to be about to; shows that an action is likely to happen soon or is intended

你们要去看什么电影？

nǐ​men yào qù kàn shén​me diàn​yǐng?

What movie are you going to see?

他有说他要去哪里吗？

tā yǒu shuō tā yào qù nǎ​li ma?

Did he say where he was going?

important adjective
(bound form) important; essential; vital; key
to want auxiliaryverb
to want; to wish for; to ask for; to demand (an object, money, etc.)

能告诉我你要什么吗？

néng gào​sù wǒ nǐ yào shén​me ma?

Can you tell me what you want?

她要的是真正的爱情。

tā yào de shì zhēn​zhèng de ài​qíng.

What she wants is True Love.

if conjunctionauxiliary
if; suppose; in case; used to introduce a conditional statement, often as a shortened form of 要是 yào​shi

我要不在家怎么办？

wǒ yào bù zài jiā zěn​me​bàn?

What if I'm not home?

to ask someone to do verb
to ask, request, or tell someone to do something

我要你五分钟内睡着。

wǒ yào nǐ wǔ fēn​zhōng nèi shuì zháo.

I want you asleep in five minutes.

你要他怎样改变呢？

nǐ yào tā zěn​yàng gǎi​biàn ne?

How do you want him to change?

either... or... verbconjunction
Used repeatedly in separate clauses to present a choice between two options, similar to "either... or..."

她问我要茶还是要咖啡。

tā wèn wǒ yào chá hái​shi yào kā​fēi.

She asked me whether I wanted tea or coffee.

more adverb
used in comparative sentences to indicate an estimate or greater degree

你比你父亲要强大。

nǐ bǐ nǐ fù​qīn yào qiáng​dà.

You are stronger than your father.

他对中国的了解比我要多一百倍。

tā duì zhōng​guó de liǎo​jiě bǐ wǒ yào duō yī bǎi bèi.

He knows a hundred times more about China than I do.

summary noun
(bound form) summary; essentials; main points
要 yāo
to demand verbnoun
(bound form) to demand; to request; to coerce; to force someone to do something
surname
a Chinese surname
to invite
to invite; to ask someone to come over
waist
(archaic) the middle part of the body; waist; original form of 腰 yāo

Cross-References

Same as

Antonym

Frequency
Character
Written text
26th most common 4191.2 per million
Movie subtitles
19th most common 7594.4 per million appears in 100% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
7114.2 per million appears in 100% of films
Written text
2695.6 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 2
HSK 3.0
Level 1
Strokes
9
Unicode
U+8981

Sources
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)