開車 / 开车
kāichēintransitive
To say drive in Chinese, use 開車 / 开车 (kāichē), the everyday word for driving a car. More formal words are 駕駛 / 驾驶 (jiàshǐ) and 駛 / 驶 (shǐ). If unsure, use 開車 / 开车.
Meaning: to operate (a wheeled motorized vehicle) (verb)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 開車 / 开车 | kāichē | intransitive |
| 駕駛 / 驾驶 | jiàshǐ | |
| 駛 / 驶 | shǐ |
开车 is the most common way to say to drive in daily conversation. It is often used for driving in general, even when the vehicle is not exactly a car.
What does it mean word for word?
开车 combines the verb kāi, to open or operate, with the noun chē, vehicle or car.
Which one should you use?
驾驶 is a more formal and professional term meaning to drive or to pilot. It appears in technical, legal and official contexts. A driver is 司机 (sī jī).
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
The object car is already built into 开车, so you do not normally add another object after it.
How do you pronounce it?
Say it as kāichē.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Do not add a vehicle after 开车. Use the phrase on its own to say you drive.
Did you know?
- In modern Chinese internet slang, 开车 is often used as a code word for sharing suggestive or adult content, such as posting a link to an NSFW site.
- The character 駛 ('shǐ') contains the radical for 'horse' (馬), reflecting a time when 'driving' meant guiding a horse-drawn carriage.
- While 開 ('kāi') usually means 'to open' something like a door, in the context of driving, it functions as the specific term for 'operating' a machine.
Examples in context
- 驾驶执照Driver's license
- 我会开摩托I can drive a motorcycle
- 你会不会开车子呀?Can you drive?
- 他是一名专业的司机，驾驶技术非常熟练。He is a professional driver, and his driving skills are very proficient.
- 我每天都开车去上班。I drive to work every day.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “drive” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries 開車, 駛, CC BY-SA 4.0.
