Dictionary › 要是

要是

yào shi

Old HSK 5 HSK 3.0 level 4 2-character word

要是 (yào shi) means "(coll.) if (…就)". It is an HSK 3.0 level 4 word, and was HSK 5 in the old six-level list.

What 要是 means

1. colloquialif

The characters in 要是

• 要yàoto want; to need; to ask for; will; shall; about to; need to; should
• 是shìto be (followed by substantives only); correct; right; true…

Words containing 要是

• 需要是发明之母xū yào shì fā míng zhī mǔNecessity is the mother of invention (European proverb).

Sounds the same

Read yào shi, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 钥匙key

Where 要是 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of Conditional & Hedging Words (HSK 5), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 5 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read yào shi correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.