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开车kāi chēto drive a car (or train etc)

HSK 1word

By Chinese Copilot · Last updated

开车 (kāi chē) means "to drive a car (or train etc)." It is a verb-object phrase, so it can be split, as in 开了一天车 (drove for a whole day), and it often comes before another verb to show how someone travels, as in 开车上班 (to drive to work).

What does 开车 mean?

  1. 1.

    to drive a car (or train etc)verb

What do the characters in 开车 mean?

  • 开to turn on; to put in operation; to operate; to run
  • 车car

How do you use 开车?

开车 is a verb-object word: 开 and 车 can be separated (开了两个小时车), and the noun after 开 can change (开飞机).

What are some examples of 开车 in a sentence?

  1. HSK 2

    我爸爸每天开车上班。

    Wǒ bàba měi tiān kāichē shàngbān.

    My dad drives to work every day.

  2. HSK 1

    你会开车吗？

    Nǐ huì kāichē ma?

    Can you drive?

  3. HSK 1

    开车的时候不要打电话。

    Kāichē de shíhou búyào dǎ diànhuà.

    Don't make phone calls while driving.

How is 开车 used in a conversation?

  1. Speaker A:

    明天我们怎么去机场？

    Míngtiān wǒmen zěnme qù jīchǎng?

    How are we getting to the airport tomorrow?

  2. Speaker B:

    我哥哥开车送我们，他明天不上班。

    Wǒ gēge kāichē sòng wǒmen, tā míngtiān bú shàngbān.

    My older brother will drive us; he's not working tomorrow.

  3. Speaker A:

    太好了，他几点来？

    Tài hǎo le, tā jǐ diǎn lái?

    Great, what time is he coming?

  4. Speaker B:

    早上七点，路上要一个小时。

    Zǎoshang qī diǎn, lùshang yào yí ge xiǎoshí.

    Seven in the morning; the trip takes an hour.

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English glosses on this page are adapted from CC-CEDICT, published by MDBG (snapshot 2026-10-23), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Glosses were edited for learners.