要
yào
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
To want; to need; also 'to be going to'. With a noun it asks for or orders something: 我要这个 'I'll take this one'. Before a verb it is a firm wish, a need or the near future: 我要回家 'I want to go home', 要下雨了 'it is about to rain'. Before a verb, 不要 means 'don't!'; for 'I don't want to' say 我不想.
Muốn, cần; cũng chỉ việc sắp xảy ra. Đi với danh từ là cách gọi món, hỏi mua: 我要这个 (cho tôi cái này). Đứng trước động từ thì chỉ ý muốn dứt khoát, sự cần thiết hoặc việc sắp đến: 我要回家 (tôi muốn về nhà), 要下雨了 (sắp mưa rồi). 不要 trước động từ là “đừng”; còn “không muốn” thì nói 不想.
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 ↗ · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “要” mean?
To want; to need; also 'to be going to'. With a noun it asks for or orders something: 我要这个 'I'll take this one'. Before a verb it is a firm wish, a need or the near future: 我要回家 'I want to go home', 要下雨了 'it is about to rain'. Before a verb, 不要 means 'don't!'; for 'I don't want to' say 我不想.
Is “要” formal or informal?
要 is generally neutral.