Top 100 character 可: key meanings and usages in groups

Today, I'd like to talk about one of the most important characters, 可. I will put words and sentences related to this character in certain groups, certain patterns, so that you can understand easily and use it properly. Let's start with this word, 可以. It has several meanings, and the one in this group is talking about possibilities, be possible to do something. Check this sentence out. Basically, it's a recommendation of a restaurant, where there are a lot of possibilities to enjoy oneself. You can eat buffet, literally, help oneself, that you can enjoy the beautiful scenery. And you can play with the kids. Just the possibilities, whether you go there or not, totally up to you. Whether you do the things as recommended, totally up to you. That's the meaning in our first group. Second word in this group, 可见, possible to see, it's evident. Every year, I buy a lot of presents for you. It's possible to see that I like you. Like in this sentence, 可见 is always responsible for the part of conclusion, after a certain observation, a certain evidence. Another word, 可行, possible to do something, possible to work on something. It's not like the moon and the star that you cannot reach. It's something doable. Please give me a doable plan, a plan that I can carry out step by step until I reach the target. There are also some words in the form of negation, such as Unbelievable, impossible to think of. The fact that you've done so much things within one hour is incredible. It's unbelievable. How did you do it? Hard for me to picture it. I couldn't do it. 真是不可思议。 Now, let's talk about the second meaning of 可以, be permitted to do something. My computer is broken. May I use yours? Here I'm asking permission from you. Could I? May I? It is more polite this way. If we use 可以, we have a very official word for permission. It could mean someone allows you to do something. It could also be a paperwork, a certificate that you are allowed to open a shop, to open a company. For example, 开公司,你得有政府的许可。 To open a company, you need government's permission. Permission from the government. You know, going through all the procedures, fill out all the paperwork in order to get the rubber stamp on it. 政府, government. 开公司,你得有政府的许可。 没有老板的许可,谁都不能提早下班。 Without permission from the boss, no one is allowed to leave early. 提早 is like earlier than scheduled. 下班, get off work, finish work, and ready to leave. Here, 许可 may not be as official as what you get from the government. It could be just the verbal okay from the boss, or signature from the boss. Another word, 认可, to approve, to recognize the value of one's work. 我的工作得到了你的认可。 My work got your recognition, got your approval, that you think I've done a good job. 认可 doesn't necessarily need a form. It could be a few good words, a few flaws, more like appreciation. 我的工作得到了你的认可。 In the third group, there are a bunch of words in the same pattern, where 可 is always in front of some verbs. They're very hard to find matches in English. They're all adjectives to describe that something is worthy of a certain action, or something that can easily arouse people's certain emotions, such as 可爱, cute, lovable, something that can make people easily feel, oh, I want to give my love. It could be a person, 可爱的孩子, a lovely child. It could be any other objects, 可爱的帽子, a lovely hat. Same way to understand 可怜, pitiful, something that will arouse a lot of people's sympathy. 小猫无家可归,太可怜了, a homeless cat, how pitiful. 无家可归, no home to go back to. Here, you can understand 可 as possible, the meaning from our first group. Nowhere possible for the cat to go. 无家可归, another word, 可观, that means considerable, something significant in size, value, and importance, usually about income, about resources. 可观 is like, it's worth a watch. Watch something as an audience, oh, great, fantastic. 他每年都有一笔可观的收入。 That is to say, he has a good amount of income every year. 他每年都有一笔可观的收入。 这个地方的水资源十分可观。 Which means the water resource of this place is very considerable. 资源, resource. 这个地方的水资源十分可观。 The next one in four characters. 可歌,可泣, something worth to sing a song to praise or cry over, about heroic action, about a heroic figure. 他从大火里救了十个人,真是可歌可泣。 He saved ten people's life from the fire, truly moving. 救, to save people's life, or give people a great help. 他从大火里救了十个人,真是可歌可泣。 If we show some other words that will fit into this pattern, but I wouldn't list them all here. I hope you can recognize them by yourself from now on. Lastly, I will introduce a few important words that may not perfectly match any of the other groups that we just mentioned. 宁可, would rather. 宁可,我宁可多等一会儿。 I would rather wait a bit longer. 宁可, talks about options between worse and the worst. You can mention just one, like the sentence we had, or you can mention about both, and you need a connection word. 宁可,也不。 我宁可多等一会儿,也不上这班火车。 I'd rather wait a bit longer than getting on this train. 可能, talks about probabilities. 他可能已经把你忘了。 She probably has forgotten about you. The negation, 她不可能把你忘了。 There's no way that she forgets about you. You're always on her mind. There's zero possibility that she forgets about you. 可, alone, can emphasize a lot of things in different types of sentences. We always say, 可不是吗? Isn't it? With 可 in the sentence, it's a lot stronger. 你人可真好。 That means, you're truly, truly a good person. 这事儿,你可知道? Do you really know about this? 可 could even mean but, only that it's less official and less stronger than 但是。 天气不好,可大家都来了。 Weather is bad, but everyone comes. What a nice surprise. Alright, that's all for today. If you have questions, post them in the comments. Try to make some sentences on your own. Have a good day. 再见。