司机
driver; chauffeur
HSK level
- Pinyin
- sījī
- Part of speech
- noun
- Level
- HSK 3
- Strokes
- 11
- Register
- neutral
- Measure word
- 个 / 位
- In episodes
- 2
Stroke order for 司机
司机 is written with 11 strokes (司: 5, 机: 6). The animation replays automatically.
What does 司机 mean?
司机 (sījī) is the noun for someone whose job is driving — a taxi driver, bus driver, truck driver, or company chauffeur.
It refers specifically to professional or paid drivers, not just anyone who happens to be at the wheel; for the act of driving a car yourself, use the verb 开车 (kāichē), and to describe yourself as the driver in that moment you'd say 我开车 rather than 我是司机. When hailing a cab or speaking to a Didi driver, passengers often address them as 师傅 (shīfu, 'master') instead of 司机, but the word 司机 itself is perfectly polite.
Common compounds: 出租车司机 (taxi driver), 公交车司机 (bus driver), 卡车司机 (truck driver). Note the character 司, which appears in many profession-related words like 公司 (company).
Note: Used both as a job title (taxi driver, bus driver) and as a polite form of address — passengers commonly call any driver 师傅 (shīfu) or 司机 directly.
Character by character
Memory hook: 司 'manage' + 机 'machine' = the person who manages a machine (vehicle) — the driver.
Hear 司机 in real episodes
司机 appears in 2 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Example sentences
我爸爸是出租车司机。
Wǒ bàba shì chūzūchē sījī.
My dad is a taxi driver.
neutral
司机，请到机场。
Sījī, qǐng dào jīchǎng.
Driver, to the airport please.
spoken, polite
这个司机开车开得很快。
Zhège sījī kāichē kāi de hěn kuài.
This driver drives really fast.
spoken
他想当公交车司机。
Tā xiǎng dāng gōngjiāochē sījī.
He wants to be a bus driver.
neutral
请问，司机师傅在哪儿？
Qǐngwèn, sījī shīfu zài nǎr?
Excuse me, where is the driver?
spoken, polite
Common phrases with 司机
Synonyms
师傅 is the polite form of address used by passengers to drivers, repairmen, and skilled workers. 司机 is the actual job title. You CALL a driver 师傅; you DESCRIBE him as a 司机.
Don't confuse 司机 with
公司 means 'company / firm.' Shares the character 司 with 司机 but refers to a business, not a person. The shared character means 'manage / department.'
开车 is the verb 'to drive (a car).' 司机 is the noun 'driver' as a profession. Say 我会开车 ('I can drive'), not 我是司机, unless driving is actually your job.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 司机 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
You just saw 司机 in 2 episodes. Fluentide keeps feeding you news episodes at your level, so this word — and thousands like it — resurface in real sentences until they stick. Full pinyin and translation every time. Free to start.