订 (dìng) · to order; to book; to reserve

Meanings

1 to order; to book; to reserve
2 to subscribe
3 to conclude (an agreement)

Characters

订

dìng

to book; to subscribe; to fix

Contains 讠 (speech radical) - booking involves verbal or written agreements.

Examples

HSK 2

你订了酒店吗？

Nǐ dìng le jiǔdiàn ma?

Have you booked a hotel?

HSK 3

我订了一张机票。

Wǒ dìng le yì zhāng jīpiào.

I booked a plane ticket.

HSK 4

我想订一份报纸。

Wǒ xiǎng dìng yī fèn bàozhǐ.

I'd like to subscribe to a newspaper.

Tips

usage

订 is used for reservations and bookings: 订票 (book tickets), 订房 (book a room), 订餐 (order food for delivery), 订阅 (subscribe).

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech; word

Speech radical on the left - the simplified left-side form of 言. It marks 订 as something done verbally: agreeing, settling, booking. The same radical drives a huge family of speech/agreement verbs (说, 谢, 议, 论), and the meaning of 订 (to fix terms, to reserve) sits squarely inside that family.

phonetic

丁 dīng

nail; firm

丁 (dīng) provides the sound, drifting one tone to dìng. It also lends a faint semantic flavour - 丁 pictures a nail, and 订 is about nailing a deal down (a date, a price, a booking). The same phonetic powers 钉 (nail), 顶 (peak) and 盯 (stare fixedly).