千叮万嘱

千叮萬囑
qiāndīng-wànzhǔ
idiom

Meanings

  1. 1 to urge or instruct over and over again
  2. 2 to repeat warnings countless times

Examples

HSK 3
Māma qiāndīng-wànzhǔ ràng wǒ lùshang xiǎoxīn.
Mom told me over and over again to be careful on the road.
HSK 4
Lǎoshī qiāndīng-wànzhǔ wǒmen bié wàng le dài zhǔnkǎozhèng.
The teacher repeatedly reminded us not to forget our admission tickets.

Tips

history
Traced to Yuan-dynasty playwright Yang Xianzhi's 《潇湘雨》 (Act 4): 我将你千叮万嘱,你偏放人长号短哭 - 'I warned you a thousand times, yet you let him cry his heart out anyway.'
memory
千 (thousand) + 万 (ten thousand) bracket 叮 (urge) and 嘱 (instruct) - the sheer scale numbers make the idiom sound exasperated, like a parent repeating themselves for the hundredth time.

Stroke Order

千 qiān
叮 dīng
万 wàn
嘱 zhǔ