eat in Chinese

How to write 吃

Animated stroke order. Tap a character to replay its stroke order.

吃 is listed in the official HSK vocabulary at HSK 1. The beginner band covers the first, most essential words every learner needs.

吃 in a sentence

• 你nǐ吃chī饭fàn了le吗ma？

  Have you eaten?

• 我wǒ想xiǎng吃chī饺jiǎo子zi。

  I want to eat dumplings.

• 他tā喜xǐ欢huān吃chī苹píng果guǒ。

  He likes eating apples.

• 我wǒ们men去qù吃chī饭fàn吧ba。

  Let's go eat.

吃 vs 喝 vs 尝

Similar and easily confused words, and how they differ.

• 喝 hē to drink

  吃 takes solids, 喝 takes liquids — 吃饭 'eat a meal' vs 喝水 'drink water'. Exception: medicine is 吃药 'take medicine', even liquid.

• 尝 cháng to taste; to try (food)

  尝 = a small taste to check the flavor — 尝尝这个 'try this'. 吃 = actually eating it.