叨

dāo
verb #11,403

Meanings

  1. 1 to chatter
  2. 2 to nag
  3. 3 garrulous

Examples

HSK 3
Nǎinai yòu zài dāo dao le.
Grandma is nagging again.
HSK 3
Tā dāo le bàntiān, wǒ yī jù yě méi tīng jìnqù.
He chattered on and on, but I didn't take in a word.

Tips

mistakes
叨 has two pronunciations: dāo (to chatter/nag, as in 叨叨 or 唠叨) and tāo (to receive a favor, literary, as in 叨扰). The common colloquial usage is dāo.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical - pictograph of an open mouth, the indexing element. Marks 叨 as a verbal action: chattering on and on (唠叨 to nag), or politely 'to receive' a favour (叨扰 sorry to trouble you, lit. 'to receive disturbance'). Family: 嘴, 唠, 嗨.
phonetic
刀 dāo
knife
Right 刀 supplies the sound directly: dāo to dāo, no shift. Pure phonetic - no semantic contribution. The picture of a curved blade has nothing to do with chatter or politeness; chosen purely for the dāo sound. Same phonetic in 忉 (literary 'sorrowful'). One of the cleanest phono-semantic ratios.

Stroke Order

叨 dāo