Confused about 可

[SteveyDevey]

I'm sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I'm a little bit confused.

I've only learned a few dozen words, and the characters to go with them, but 可 keeps confusing me. I understand it to be the verb "to be able to", or "can", as in 我可说.

I hear it as 'hui4', but whenever I see the pinyin for 可, it's written as 'ke3'.

What's with that?

Or, is it a different character?

[gougou]

The word you are talking about is [POP=to be able to/hui4]会[/POP]

[SteveyDevey]

Oh! So, would this make sense, then "我会说英文" ?

And in what manner would someone use 可 instead? Could it be used as interchangably as in english?

[Master O]

Well, from what I understand it:

a) 会 (hui4) means "able to do something because of ability." The subtlely here is that these are actions you can do because you learned how to do them via study, practice, etc.

Examples:

我会说法文 = I am able to ("can") speak French.

我会骑自行车 = I am able to ("can") ride a bike.

B) "会" in other contexts can also be similar to the verb "will."

Example:

Tomorrow I will go to the supermarket.　＝　明天我会去超市。

c) "会," as a noun, can also mean "a conference," "a meeting," or even "a party."

Example: 晚会 (wan3 hui4)　＝　party

开会　(kai1 hui4) ＝　to attend a meeting

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可 (ke3) is used a lot in Chinese to describe a quality of something or someone.

Examples: 可爱 (ke3 ai4)　＝ cute (literally, "love-able")

可以 (ke3 yi3) is used a lot for asking someone else for permission to do something. It basically means, "May I ...??? That's probably what you've been seeing, since you're relatively new to this language.

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There's also a 3rd way of saying "can," called "能."　(neng2)

能 means you are able to do something because other circumstances allow you to do so.

Example:

I can't go to the party tonight because I am taking an exam tomorrow.

今天晚上，我不能来晚会因为明天我考试。

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I hope that helps you some, SteveyDevey.

[spaceboy]

U said it, it is a different character'会'(hui4)

We shall arrive tomorrow.

我们明天会到.

And when we take 会 as a noun,it usually means 'meeting'.

We usually express as 我会说....=I'm able to speak.../I will talk about ....

'我可说'in my understanding means 'I can speaking something about..."

and '我可说'is not a complete sentence in structure.

我会'hui4'说=我可'ke3'以说　in some occasion.

我 会 说 中文

I　 can speak chinese.

我 可以 说中文

I'm not refuse to speak chinese.

我可说中文.(is not a pure chinese express.)

Hope all the above can help u out.

[elina]

我会'hui4'说=我可'ke3'以说　in some occasion.

我 会 说 中文

I　 can speak chinese.

我 可以 说中文

I'm not refuse to speak chinese.

我可说中文.(is not a pure chinese express.)

I agree. And I seldom hear people say 我可说中文. The Chinese character of 可 used alone without 以 has the different meaning from 可以, please see the book of A New Chinese-English Dictionary of Function Words:

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[Sunny_xu]

"以" in the word "可以" is a postfix. And actually "可" and "可以" can have the same meaning of "can" or "can be".

and there are some other words in which "可" means "can"(or "can be").

"可见":(can be seen); "可能"(can be true); ＂不可思议＂（can not be imagined and understood）

but people don't use "可" as a single word to mean "can"(or "can be") in morden spoken mandarlin.

however, a single "可＂does appear in people's talk, which can mean:

a) "but"

谢谢你的邀请，可我很忙．(Thank you for your invite, but i'm very busy.)

B) to emphasize

她可漂亮了！　(she's so pretty!)

c) to strengthen the tone of a question．

这个女孩你可认识？(Do you know this girl or not? )

and etc.

[SteveyDevey]

Wow! Thanks for all the great responses. Certainly more than enough info to keep me occupied forever!

[pop=thank you/xièxiè nǐmen]谢谢你们[/pop]!