可 (kě) means Can (able to - may - but). Below are 24 of the 258 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
山上 可 能有蛇。
Shān shàng kěnéng yǒu shé.
There may be snakes on the mountain.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 蛇
Reading these is one thing; producing 可 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
可 是身体先不同意了。
kěshì shēntǐ xiān bùtóng yì le / liǎo / liào.
But my body disagreed first.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Facing Pressure
房间不大， 可 是很干净。
fángjiān búdà, kěshì hěn gānjìng.
It isn't big, but it's very clean.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · My New Room
可 是我在沙发上睡着了。
kěshì wǒ zài shāfā shàng shuìzháole.
But I fell asleep on the sofa.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · My Weekend
我以为自己 可 以坚持下去。
wǒ yǐwéi zìjǐ kěyǐ jiānchí xiàqu.
I thought I could keep it up.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Facing Pressure
可 是我们刚出门，天就黑了。
kěshì wǒmen gāng chū mén, tiān jiù hēi le / liǎo / liào.
But the moment we stepped out, the sky went dark.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · A Rainy Day
妈妈说：“在家也 可 以玩。”
māma shuō:" zàijiā yě kěyǐ wán / wàn."
Mum said, "You can have fun at home too."
Graded reader · HSK 2 · A Rainy Day
今天下雨了， 可 是爸爸不在家。
jīntiān xiàyǔ le / liǎo / liào, kěshì bàba bùzài jiā.
It rained today, but dad wasn't home.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Going to School
我问他：“我 可 以去上班吗？”
wǒ wèn tā:" wǒ kěyǐ qù shàngbān mǎ?"
I asked him, "Can I go to work?"
Graded reader · HSK 2 · Going to the Doctor
From the travel phrasebook
From the grammar library
便宜一点儿， 可 以吗？
Piányi yìdiǎnr, kěyǐ ma?
A bit cheaper, could you?
Grammar library · HSK 3 · 一点儿 vs 有点儿
可 appears in 258 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 可
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 可
How is 可 used in a sentence?
This page shows 258 sentences using 可 (kě, "Can (able to - may - but)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 可 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 可 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Where can I see the full entry for 可?
The dictionary page for 可 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 可, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
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