飞机
airplane
fēijī
What does 飞机 mean?
飞机 (fēijī) is the everyday word for 'airplane,' literally 'flying machine.' It covers commercial jets, private planes, and small aircraft; context (or compounds like 客机 'passenger plane' and 战斗机 'fighter jet') narrows the meaning. The verb pair learners need to memorize is 坐飞机 (zuò fēijī), 'travel by plane' — literally 'sit a plane,' the same 坐 used for buses and trains, not 飞 or 开. The airport is 飞机场 (fēijīchǎng), more commonly shortened to 机场 (jīchǎng). The standard measure word is 架, used for most aircraft and large mechanical equipment.
Character breakdown
to fly
machine; device
Memory hook: 飞 (fly) + 机 (machine) = flying machine. Same 机 appears in 手机 (phone) and 电脑 → 机 broadly means 'machine/device.'
Measure word for 飞机
Example sentences
我明天坐飞机去北京。
Wǒ míngtiān zuò fēijī qù Běijīng.
I'm flying to Beijing tomorrow.
spoken
飞机几点起飞？
Fēijī jǐ diǎn qǐfēi?
What time does the plane take off?
neutral
他没坐过飞机。
Tā méi zuò guo fēijī.
He has never been on a plane.
spoken
飞机票很贵。
Fēijī piào hěn guì.
Plane tickets are expensive.
neutral
Common phrases with 飞机
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
飞机 appears in 1 podcast episode at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
客机 specifically means 'passenger plane' (客 = passenger). Use 客机 in news or aviation contexts; 飞机 is the everyday word that covers all aircraft.
Don't confuse 飞机 with
Both contain 机 ('machine'), but 手机 (hand-machine) is a cell phone. 飞机 (flying-machine) is an airplane. 机 is a productive suffix meaning 'machine.'
机场 is the airport (the place). 飞机 is the airplane (the vehicle). You take a 飞机 from a 机场.