嘟 (dū) · toot, honk, beep (onomatopoeia)

Meanings

1 toot
2 honk
3 beep (onomatopoeia)
4 to pout

Characters

嘟

dū

toot; beep; to pout

Examples

HSK 3

她嘟着嘴，一脸不高兴。

Tā dū zhe zuǐ, yì liǎn bù gāoxìng.

She pouted, looking unhappy.

HSK 7-9

电话那头传来嘟嘟的忙音。

Diànhuà nà tóu chuánlái dūdū de mángyīn.

A busy signal beeped from the other end of the phone.

Tips

usage

嘟 is often reduplicated as 嘟嘟 to imitate repeated beeping or honking sounds. As a verb, 嘟嘴 means to pout.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left-side mouth radical - a small square depicting an open mouth. Indexes 嘟 in the speech-sound family alongside 吗 question particle, 啦 exclamation, 喂 hello. Carries the meaning directly: 嘟 names the muttering, pouting, or horn-honking sounds that issue from a mouth.

phonetic

都 dū

capital city; all

Right side 都 supplies the sound directly - dū to dū, identical. The meaning capital city or the adverb all doesn't transfer; the picture is borrowed purely as a sound marker. Note this is the same 都 as in 首都 capital and 都是 all are.