拖 (tuō): to drag; to pull; to haul

Meanings

1 to drag; to pull; to haul
2 to delay; to procrastinate
3 to mop (the floor)

Characters

拖

tuō

to drag; to delay

Examples

HSK 3

她每天都拖地。

Tā měitiān dōu tuōdì.

She mops the floor every day.

HSK 4

他拖着行李箱走了。

Tā tuō zhe xínglǐxiāng zǒu le.

He dragged his suitcase away.

HSK 6

他做事总喜欢拖，往往会错过最好的时机。

Tā zuòshì zǒng xǐhuan tuō, wǎngwǎng huì cuòguò zuìhǎo de shíjī.

He always likes to procrastinate, and often misses the best opportunity.

Tips

usage

拖地 = to mop the floor. 拖延 = to procrastinate/delay (more formal). 拖后腿 = to hold someone back, to be a drag on someone.

memory

The hand radical 扌 on the left + 也 on the right - your hand pulling something along behind.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical)

Left hand radical - the side-stacking variant of 手. Anchors 拖 in dragging/pulling actions: hauling something heavy along the ground, mopping a floor, pulling a load. Also covers the figurative 'drag out' sense - delaying, procrastinating, letting something stretch on. Family: 拉 (pull), 拽 (yank), 拽 (drag).

phonetic

它 tā

it

Right 它 supplies the sound - tā drifted to tuō, both sharing the same Old Chinese rime. 它 was originally a pictograph of a long snake (later borrowed for the pronoun 'it'). The image is mnemonic: dragging something long like a snake along behind you. Family: 蛇 (shé, snake), 驼 (tuó, camel), 砣 (tuó, weight).