弹舌

彈舌
tánshé
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to cluck (the tongue); to trill the tongue; to make a tongue-rolling sound

Examples

HSK 5
Tā bùmǎn de tánshé yī shēng.
He clucked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
HSK 6
Tā xué le hǎojǐ nián cáinéng tánshé fāchū Xībānyáyǔ de R yīn.
It took her several years to learn to roll her tongue and produce the Spanish R sound.

Tips

usage
Two senses: (1) the involuntary 'tsk' click of disapproval; (2) the linguistic skill of trilling - the tongue-roll needed for Spanish/Russian/Italian R, which Mandarin itself does not use as a phoneme.
memory
(tán) means 'to flick / pluck' (as in 钢琴, play piano) - picture flicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

Stroke Order

dàn
shé