要 (yāo) means Want (need - request - must - demand). Below are 24 of the 121 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
From the graded readers
他还 要 了一些菜。
tā háiyāo le / liǎo / liào yīxiē cài.
He also ordered some vegetables.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · At the Restaurant
坐车 要 二十分钟。
zuò chē yāo èrshí fēnzhōng.
It takes twenty minutes by bus.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Going to School
那时候只 要 十分钟。
nàshí hòu zhǐyào shífēn zhōng.
Then it only takes ten minutes.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Going to School
我给他钱，他不 要 。
wǒ gěi tā qián, tā bùyào.
I offered him money; he wouldn't take it.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Getting Lost
茶是不 要 钱的。我很高兴。
chá shì bùyào qián de / dì. wǒ hěn gāoxìng.
The tea was free. I was very happy.
Graded reader · HSK 1 · At the Restaurant
价格也不贵，只 要 三百块。
jiàgé yěbù guì, zhǐyào sānbǎi kuài.
It wasn't expensive either — only three hundred yuan.
Graded reader · HSK 3 · Shopping Online
From the travel phrasebook
我 要 改签。
Wǒ yào gǎiqiān.
I'd like to change my ticket.
Travel phrasebook · High-speed rail and the metro
From the grammar library
春节 要 到了。
Chūnjié yào dào le.
Spring Festival is nearly here.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 快…了 / 要…了 — about to happen
火车快 要 开了。
Huǒchē kuàiyào kāi le.
The train is about to leave.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 快…了 / 要…了 — about to happen
我明天 要 去北京。
Wǒ míngtiān yào qù Běijīng.
I'm going to Beijing tomorrow.
Grammar library · HSK 2 · 想 / 要 / 需要 — want and need
要 appears in 121 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 要
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 要
How is 要 used in a sentence?
This page shows 121 sentences using 要 (yāo, "Want (need - request - must - demand)"), 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 要 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 要 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 要 an HSK word?
Yes — 要 is on the official HSK 2 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 2 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 要?
The dictionary page for 要 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 要, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 2 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
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