逗 (dòu) · funny, amusing, to tease

Meanings

1 funny
2 amusing
3 to tease
4 to play with

Characters

逗

dòu

funny; to tease

Examples

HSK 1

你真逗！

Nǐ zhēn dòu!

You're so funny!

HSK 2

别逗小猫了，它要睡觉了。

Bié dòu xiǎomāo le, tā yào shuìjiào le.

Stop teasing the kitten, it wants to sleep.

HSK 3

他说话特别逗，大家都笑了。

Tā shuōhuà tèbié dòu, dàjiā dōu xiào le.

He talks in such a funny way that everyone laughed.

Tips

usage

As an adjective, 逗 is colloquial and common in spoken Chinese, meaning 'funny' or 'hilarious'. As a verb, it means 'to tease' or 'to amuse someone'.

memory

Think of 逗 as 'dou' sounding like 'do' - 'do something funny to make people laugh'.

Components

radical

辶 chuò

to walk; motion (variant of 辵)

Motion radical wrapping the bottom-left - the abbreviated form of 辵. 逗 originally meant 'to stop along the way, halt one's journey' - the motion that pauses. From 'tarrying' came the modern senses 'tease, banter, dot/comma' - playful pauses in speech or text. Same radical anchors 进 enter, 退 retreat, 远 far.

phonetic

豆 dòu

bean; ritual vessel (here phonetic)

Inner component 豆 supplies an exact phonetic match: dòu to dòu, no drift. 豆 originally pictured a tall stemmed ritual vessel (its 'bean' meaning is a later loan). Same phonetic gives 逗 dòu, 痘 dòu (smallpox), 斗 dǒu (peck measure) - a tight dòu family. Extra mnemonic: stopping for a bean-snack along the road.