to sing
HSK level
唱歌 is written with 25 strokes (唱: 11, 歌: 14). The animation replays automatically.
唱歌 (chànggē) means 'to sing' — literally 'sing-song' — and is the standard way to say someone is singing.
It is a verb-object compound: 唱 is the verb 'to sing,' and 歌 is the noun 'song.' This grammar matters: because 歌 already fills the object slot, you cannot add another song-shaped object directly. To sing a SPECIFIC song, split the compound and slot the song in: 唱一首歌 ('sing a song'), 唱中文歌 ('sing Chinese songs'), 唱什么歌 ('sing what song?'). Saying 唱歌一首 is wrong.
The verb 喜欢 takes the whole compound (我喜欢唱歌 'I like singing'), and frequency adverbs go before the whole thing (我常常唱歌 'I often sing'). For karaoke, the verb 去唱歌 ('go sing') almost always implies KTV — China's beloved private karaoke rooms. The measure word for songs is 首 (shǒu): 一首歌. Compare to other verb-object pairs you already know: 看书 ('read books'), 跳舞 ('dance'), 吃饭 ('eat').
Character by character
Memory hook: 唱 ('sing') + 歌 ('song') = sing a song. Same verb-object pattern as 吃饭 ('eat-rice') and 看书 ('look-book').
唱歌 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Browse the full episode library我很喜欢唱歌。
Wǒ hěn xǐhuan chànggē.
I really like singing.
spoken
她唱歌唱得很好。
Tā chànggē chàng de hěn hǎo.
She sings very well.
neutral
周末我们去唱歌吧。
Zhōumò wǒmen qù chànggē ba.
Let's go sing (KTV) this weekend.
spoken
他不会唱中文歌。
Tā bú huì chàng Zhōngwén gē.
He can't sing Chinese songs.
neutral
请你唱一首歌。
Qǐng nǐ chàng yì shǒu gē.
Please sing a song.
spoken, polite
歌唱 is the literary / formal version, used in fixed phrases like 歌唱家 ('professional vocalist') or 歌唱比赛 ('singing contest'). 唱歌 is the everyday verb. You'd never say 我喜欢歌唱 in casual speech.
唱 alone is the bare verb, used when a specific song fills the object slot: 唱一首中文歌. 唱歌 is the intransitive 'to sing' for general activities. Pick based on whether you have a specific song to name.
听歌 is 'to listen to music / songs.' 唱歌 is 'to sing.' Same 歌 character but opposite roles — listener vs. performer.
讲 means 'to speak / tell' (讲故事 'tell a story'). Beginners sometimes confuse the verb-object structure of 讲故事 with 唱歌, but 讲 is talking, not singing.
常 ('often') and 唱 (chàng) sound nearly identical to learners — both have similar initial sounds and the fourth tone of 唱 vs second tone of 常 separates them. 我常唱歌 ('I often sing') puts both characters in one sentence.
Acquire it by listening
You just saw 唱歌 in 1 episode. 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.
