要 (yào): to want

Meanings

1 to want
2 to need
3 to ask for
4 will; about to
5 important

Characters

要

yào

to want; to need; will; important

Examples

你要什么？

Nǐ yào shénme?

What do you want?

我要去中国。

Wǒ yào qù Zhōngguó.

I'm going to go to China.

明天要下雨。

Míngtiān yào xiàyǔ.

It's going to rain tomorrow.

重要的是坚持。

Zhòngyào de shì jiānchí.

What's important is to persist.

Tips

grammar

As yào, 要 covers four senses that all share a 'leaning toward' feel: (1) want — 我要水; (2) will / about to — 我要走了; (3) need to / should — 你要小心; (4) bound 'important' in compounds — 重要, 主要, 必要. The colloquial 'if' sense lives in 要是.

mistakes

Two readings, easy to confuse: yào (4th tone) is the everyday verb 'want / need / will / important'. yāo (1st tone) is bound and means 'to demand; to coerce' — it shows up in 要求 (demand / require) and 要挟 (coerce / blackmail). Also: 不要 is a command 'don't!'. For the softer 'I don't want,' use 不想.

Components

radical

覀 yà

top-form of 西; covering / west radical

Top piece is the 覀 covering form of 西 and is the entry's indexing radical. Originally a drawing of a woman's hands on her hips at the waist, the top has visually converged on the 西/覀 pattern, which is how the dictionary now files this character.

semantic

女 nǚ

woman; female

Bottom 女 anchors the original meaning: a woman's body, with the upper hands-on-hips covering. From the body-part sense 要 extended to want, demand, must — the things a person grasps at the waist of their need.