可 in English
- (prefix) can / may / able to / -able / to approve / to permit / to suit / (particle used for emphasis) certainly / very / but / however
- khan (loanword) / used in 可汗[ke4 han2]
Stroke order
Show the animation Stroke data from Make Me a Hanzi, derived from the Arphic PL fonts under the Arphic Public License.
How it used to be written
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Oracle bone script 商 -
Clerical script 東漢 - See all 14 forms
Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).
Examples
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“我可不可以用你的笔？” “嗯，可以。”
"May I use your pencil?" "Yes, you may."
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“我可以用电话吗？”“请便。”
"May I use the phone?" "Please feel free."
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FSI人员：“长官，有一个网站，任何人都可以加上一个外国语言的句子！“。FSI主席：“什么？ 炸掉他们！“。
FSI officer: "Sir, there is a website where ANYONE can add a sentence in a foreign language!". FSI president: "What?! Bomb them!".
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Jane 又胖、又没礼貌、又烟不离手，可是 Ken 却觉得她可爱、动人，所谓「爱情是盲目的」，大概就是这个意思了吧。
Jane is fat and rude, and smokes too much. However, Ken thinks she's lovely and charming. That's why they say love is blind.
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Nancy不可能看过这本书。
Nancy cannot have read this book.
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一心不可二用。
You can't do two things at once.
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三个不同的出生日期谁也不可能有。
No one can have three different birth dates.
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下周可能会结冰。
It may freeze next week.