可以
kě yǐ
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
May, can: to be allowed to do something, or able to because nothing stands in the way. 我可以进来吗 'may I come in?'. As an answer, 可以 by itself means 'yes, that's fine'. To refuse permission say 不可以 or 不能. For a skill that had to be learned, use 会.
Có thể, được phép làm một việc gì; cũng dùng một mình để trả lời “được”. 我可以进来吗？ (tôi vào được không?), trả lời là 可以 (được). Không cho phép thì nói 不可以 hoặc 不能. Còn việc phải học mới biết làm thì dùng 会.
VerbRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 063 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 以 = dĩ · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “khả dĩ” (kha-di). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “可以” mean?
May, can: to be allowed to do something, or able to because nothing stands in the way. 我可以进来吗 'may I come in?'. As an answer, 可以 by itself means 'yes, that's fine'. To refuse permission say 不可以 or 不能. For a skill that had to be learned, use 会.
Is “可以” formal or informal?
可以 is generally neutral.