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

HSK 1

你要什么？

Nǐ yào shénme?

What do you want?

HSK 1

明天要下雨。

Míngtiān yào xiàyǔ.

It's going to rain tomorrow.

HSK 3

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.