可

can, may; but (可是)

No. 33 most used · 0.49% of everyday spoken Chinese: about 1 character in every 203.

How it's built

• 丁nail
• 口mouth

A way to remember it

A mouth (口) by a fixed nail (丁): a firm "yes, you may".

Words

• 可以

  kě yǐ

  can; may; possible
• 可能

  kě néng

  might (happen); possible; probable
• 可是

  kě shì

  but; however; (used for emphasis) indeed
• 可爱

  kě ài

  adorable; cute; lovely
• 可怕

  kě pà

  awful; dreadful; fearful
• 可怜

  kě lián

  pitiful; pathetic; to have pity on

Sentences

• 他可能很快就到了。

  tā kě néng hěn kuài jiù dào le

  He is likely to arrive soon.
• 他说的话全不可信。

  tā shuō de huà quán bù kě xìn

  There isn't a grain of truth in what he says.
• 任何人都可以做到。

  rèn hé rén dōu kě yǐ zuò dào

  Anyone can do that.
• 任何时间我都可以。

  rèn hé shí jiān wǒ dōu kě yǐ

  Any time will suit me.

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How often characters are written: wordfreq by Robyn Speer, CC BY-SA 4.0, with data from Google Books Ngrams and SUBTLEX by Marc Brysbaert and others. Meanings: CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sentences: Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR. How often they're said: FrequencyWords and OPUS, from OpenSubtitles.