到 (dào): to arrive

Meanings

1 to arrive
2 to reach
3 to (a place or time)

Characters

到

dào

to arrive; to reach; to (a place)

Examples

你到了吗？

Nǐ dào le ma?

Have you arrived?

我到家了。

Wǒ dào jiā le.

I'm home (arrived home).

从北京到上海。

Cóng Běijīng dào Shànghǎi.

From Beijing to Shanghai.

Tips

grammar

到 as a complement indicates successful completion: 找到 (found), 看到 (saw/noticed), 听到 (heard), 买到 (managed to buy).

usage

到处 means 'everywhere': 到处都是人 'There are people everywhere.'

Components

radical

刂 dāo

knife

Knife radical on the right — the standing form of 刀. Here it is the indexing radical but functions as a phonetic, giving 到 its sound (dāo → dào). The choice of knife is largely sonic; the meaning of arrival is delivered entirely by 至 on the left. Same radical heads 利, 刚, 刻, 别.

semantic

至 zhì

to arrive; up to

至 on the left — itself a 会意 char picturing an arrow having landed in the ground (the bottom horizontal is earth, the upper part is the inverted arrow). It supplies the meaning of 到: arrival, reaching a destination. The same arrow-strikes-ground image gives 至 itself the meaning 'to arrive, up to.'