调 (diào): to transfer; to reassign (perso…

Meanings

1 to transfer; to reassign (personnel, troops)
2 to investigate; to look into
3 tone; melody; key (music)
4 tone of voice; accent; intonation

Characters

调

diào

to transfer; to reassign (personnel, troops)

Examples

公司把他调到上海工作。

Gōngsī bǎ tā diào dào Shànghǎi gōngzuò.

The company transferred him to work in Shanghai.

这首歌的调很高，我唱不上去。

Zhè shǒu gē de diào hěn gāo, wǒ chàng bù shàngqù.

This song's key is really high — I can't reach it.

警方正在调查这起案件。

Jǐngfāng zhèngzài diàochá zhè qǐ ànjiàn.

The police are investigating this case.

Tips

usage

diào covers two unrelated-looking senses that share one character: (1) moving people or resources around — 调动, 调查, 调度 — and (2) musical or speech tone — 调子, 音调, 声调. The transfer sense came from 'select and call up an official'; the tone sense from 'pitch a sound to a specific level.'

memory

Mnemonic for the split: tiáo = tweak (you tweak a recipe, tweak a dispute into peace, tweak the air-con). diào = dial (you dial a soldier in from another unit, dial into an investigation, dial in the right musical key). Same starting consonants as the readings.

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech; words

Left speech radical, contracted from 言. The original sense was tuning words to harmonize a conversation; from that came musical tone (the diào reading) and the broader idea of adjusting or mixing. Same family as 说 (speak), 谈 (chat), 谢 (thank).

phonetic

周 zhōu

circle; cycle (here phonetic)

Right 周 supplies the sound — zhōu drifted to tiáo and diào in this phonetic family (compare 雕, 凋). Its own meaning of completeness or full cycle adds a faint flavor of bringing things into balance, but the role is principally phonetic.