喝
to drink
hē
What does 喝 mean?
喝 (hē) is the basic Chinese verb 'to drink' — used for water, tea, coffee, soup, juice, alcohol, and any other liquid you put in your mouth. It pairs with 吃 (chī, 'to eat') as the two foundational ingestion verbs every Chinese learner meets first. Two differences from English: first, Chinese uses 喝 for soup (喝汤), whereas English speakers say 'eat soup' — in Mandarin, if it pours from a bowl or cup, you 喝 it; second, 喝 by itself can mean 'drink alcohol' depending on context (你喝吗？ asked at a meal usually means 'do you drink?'
). The character 喝 contains the 口 (mouth) radical on the left, a useful clue: most verbs involving the mouth (吃 eat, 喊 shout, 叫 call) share it.
Character breakdown
to drink (mouth 口 radical + phonetic 曷)
Memory hook: The mouth radical 口 is on the left — anything you do with your mouth often gets that radical: 吃 eat, 喝 drink, 叫 shout.
Example sentences
我想喝水。
Wǒ xiǎng hē shuǐ.
I want to drink water.
spoken
你喝茶还是喝咖啡？
Nǐ hē chá háishi hē kāfēi?
Will you drink tea or coffee?
neutral
妈妈在喝汤。
Māma zài hē tāng.
Mom is drinking (eating) soup.
neutral
天气热，多喝水。
Tiānqì rè, duō hē shuǐ.
The weather is hot — drink more water.
spoken
Common phrases with 喝
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
喝 appears in 2 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
饮 is the literary / formal verb 'to drink,' appearing in compounds like 饮料 (drinks) and 饮水 (drinking water). In everyday speech you always say 喝, never 饮.
Don't confuse 喝 with
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire by listening
Hear 喝 in real Chinese, not in a flashcard.
Fluentide picks the next news episode at your level, so this word shows up again and again in real sentences. Pinyin, translation, and the episode where you heard it — every time. Free to start, no card.