Meaning of 快活
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- happy
- cheerful
How to use 快活
快活 describes a relaxed, carefree kind of happiness, often about how someone lives or spends their days. It sounds a bit more casual and colloquial than 快乐 (kuàilè). Example: 他退休以后过得很快活。(Tā tuìxiū yǐhòu guò de hěn kuàihuo.) He has been living happily since he retired.
快 (kuài) means fast or pleased, and 活 (huó) means alive or lively. Picture someone feeling so lively and light that life moves along easily, and you have 快活, a carefree, happy mood.
Common mistake: Learners often read the second syllable with a full second tone as huó. In 快活 it is usually neutral, so say kuàihuo, the same way 凉快 (liángkuai) ends in a light syllable. Also, 快活 does not mean "living fast". 快 here means pleased, not quick.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
快 kuài · rapid · 7 strokes
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- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
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- 7
活 huó · to live · 9 strokes
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- 9
Related words
Words that share a character with 快活.
| 生活 | shēnghuó | to live; life |
| 快乐 | kuàilè | happy; joyful |
| 活动 | huódòng | to exercise; to move about; to work out; shaky; unsteady; loose (tooth etc) |
| 快要 | kuàiyào | nearly at the point of (doing sth); about to (do sth) |
| 快点儿 | kuài diǎnr | erhua variant of 快點|快点[kuai4 dian3] |
| 凉快 | liángkuai | pleasantly cool (weather etc); to cool oneself; to cool off |
| 快餐 | kuàicān | fast food; snack |
| 干活儿 | gànhuór | erhua variant of 幹活|干活[gan4 huo2] |
| 赶快 | gǎnkuài | quickly; at once |
| 快速 | kuàisù | fast; high-speed; rapid |
| 加快 | jiākuài | to accelerate; to speed up; to hasten |
| 尽快 | jǐnkuài | as quickly as possible; as soon as possible |
Questions about 快活
What does 快活 mean?
快活 (kuàihuo) means "happy; cheerful" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 快活?
快活 is made of 2 characters: 快 (7 strokes), 活 (9 strokes). That is 16 strokes in total.
Is 快活 an HSK word?
Yes. 快活 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 快活 and 快乐?
Both mean happy. 快乐 (kuàilè) is the standard word for joy and appears in greetings like 生日快乐. 快活 stresses a carefree, easygoing feeling and is more often used to describe a way of living, so you would not say 生日快活.
Can 快活 be used as a verb or reduplicated?
Yes. In speech it can mean to enjoy yourself, as in 出去快活快活 (chūqù kuàihuo kuàihuo), go out and have some fun. It can also be reduplicated as an adjective, 快快活活, to sound more vivid.