(què): certain, true

(què) is a Chinese character meaning “certain, true.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #331 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, stone. Its radical form (stone) appears in many related characters such as (wǎn, bowl), (pèng, to touch, to bump), (shí, stone).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. certain, true

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstone

Decomposition: ⿰石角 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjective/verbquè dìngdefinite5
adverbquè shíindeed4
adverbdí quèreally5
adjectivezhèng quècorrect4
verbquè rènto confirm5
verbquè bǎoto ensure5
adjectivezhǔn quèaccurate4
adjective/verbmíng quèclear-cut5
adjectivejīng quèaccurate6
verbquè lìto establish6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
què xìnto be convinced
què qièdefinite
què záodefinite
qiān zhēn wàn quèabsolutely true (idiom)
què zhěnto make a definite diagnosis
què dìng xìngdeterminacy
zhǔn què xìngaccuracy
jīng què dùaccuracy
què zhèngto prove
què yǒu qí shì(confirm to be) true
bù què shíuntrue
bù míng quèindefinite
bù zhèng quèincorrect
bù què dìng xìng yuán lǐHeisenberg's uncertainty principle (1927)
què shìcertainly
37
Total compounds
46
As first character
30
As last character
24
As middle character

appears in 37 compound words: 46 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 24 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhěn
0.815173,804 co-occurrences
0.71387 co-occurrences
0.66089 co-occurrences
zhǎng
0.65988 co-occurrences
bìng
0.619124,920 co-occurrences
shùn
0.61188 co-occurrences
0.606143,724 co-occurrences
fèi
0.58622,584 co-occurrences
rèn
0.58192,432 co-occurrences
yán
0.55124,684 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

qiānzhēnwànquèHSK 4+

absolutely true; one can swear it is true

phrase
quèyǒuqíshìHSK 4+

to be a real thing; to be something that actually happened

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

认一下收货地址,保货物能准送达。

Qǐng quèrèn yíxià shōuhuò dìzhǐ, quèbǎo huòwù néng zhǔnquè sòngdá.

Please confirm the delivery address to ensure the goods can be delivered accurately.

LtnFeb 2026

...26 Ultra实机曝光、蓝牙S Pen定不回归

. . . 2 6 U l t r a shí jī pù guāng , lán yá S P e n què dìng bù huí guī

... 26 Ultra real machine exposure, Bluetooth S Pen is confirmed not to return

RfiFeb 2026

北京要求华盛顿取消单方关税 中国似未认特朗普访中安排

běi jīng yāo qiú huá shèng dùn qǔ xiāo dān fāng guān shuì zhōng guó sì wèi què rèn tè lǎng pǔ fǎng zhōng ān pái

Beijing Demands Washington Remove Unilateral Tariffs; China Appears to Have Not Confirmed Trump's Visit Arrangements

NewsFeb 2026

...:加征15%关税立即生效 全球贸易重返不定性时代

. . . jiā zhēng guān shuì lì jí shēng xiào quán qiú mào yì chóng fǎn bù què dìng xìng shí dài

...: 15% Tariff Hike Takes Immediate Effect as Global Trade Returns to Era of Uncertainty

NewsFeb 2026

巷弄不念“ㄋㄨㄥˋ” 正读音曝!家长愣:小三国语好难啊

xiàng nòng bù niàn zhèng què dòu yīn pù ! jiā cháng lèng xiǎo sān guó yǔ hǎo nán a

Alleyways Don't Pronounce "Nong" Correctly! Parents Stunned: "Little Three Kingdoms Mandarin Is So Hard!"

百度新闻Feb 2026

【城事】外滩开关式人墙再次启用,分流客流保平台上..

chéng shì wài tān kāi guān shì rén qiáng zài cì qǐ yòng , fēn liú kè liú què bǎo píng tái shàng . .

【City Affairs】The switch-type crowd barrier at the Bund has been reactivated to divert foot traffic and ensure order on the platform...

Tatoeba

我们老师实很讲究礼节,不是吗?

Wǒmen lǎoshī quèshí hěn jiǎngjiu lǐjié, bùshìma?

Our teacher really stands on ceremony, doesn't she?

Tatoeba

定你的资料属实吗?

Nǐ quèdìng nǐ de zīliào shǔshí ma?

Are you sure of your facts?

Tatoeba

认那是可纠正的错误吗?

Nǐ quèrèn nà shì kě jiūzhèng de cuòwù ma?

Can you confirm that it is a correctable error?

Tatoeba

定你没有忘记什么吗?

Nǐ quèdìng nǐ méiyǒu wàngjì shénme ma?

Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced què

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 确 (què) mean in Chinese?
确 (què) primarily means "certain, true." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #331 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 确 and 假?
确 (què) and 假 (jiǎ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 确 (true) vs 假 (false).
How many strokes does 确 have?
确 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 确?
The radical associated with 确 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 确?
确 is composed of: 石 (semantic), 角 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰石角 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 确?
Common words with 确 include: 确定 (què dìng, "definite"); 确实 (què shí, "indeed"); 的确 (dí què, "really"); 正确 (zhèng què, "correct"); 确认 (què rèn, "to confirm"). There are over 37 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 确 (què)?
Several characters share the pronunciation què: 缺 (deficiency), 却 (but). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 确 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 确 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.