HSK 5 · Verbs

耽误 dānwu “to delay” in Chinese

Traditional 耽誤

What 耽误 means

  1. to delay
  2. to hold up
  3. to waste time
  4. to interfere with

How to say 耽误

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale耽dān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own误wuneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

耽误 in a sentence

  1. 可以耽误你一点时间吗？

    Kěyǐ dānwu nǐ yìdiǎn shíjiān ma?

    Could I take up a little of your time?

    Sentence #1409152 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 事故耽误了我们半小时。

    Shìgù dānwu le wǒmen bàn xiǎoshí.

    The accident held us up for half an hour.

    Sentence #332595 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我发现你玩绝对不耽误学习。我就不行。

    Wǒ fāxiàn nǐ wán juéduì bù dānwu xuéxí. Wǒ jiù bùxíng.

    I’ve noticed that having fun never gets in the way of your studies. I just can’t manage that.

    Sentence #1911459 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 耽误 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 耽 (dān) with each of its parts in a different colour
耽dānto indulge in
  • 耳ear · ěrMeaning part
  • 冘to move on · yínSound part

耳 hints at the meaning (ear); 冘 (yín) hints at the sound. Compare it with dān.

The character 误 (wù) with each of its parts in a different colour
误wùmistakelight in 耽误
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
  • 吴one of several warring states · WúSound part

讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 吴 (Wú) hints at the sound. Compare it with wu.

How to write 耽误

耽 10 strokes · 误 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

耽误 (dānwu) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 耽误 (dānwu). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 耽误

Words with 误

误会wùhuì · to misunderstand错误cuòwù · mistaken误解wùjiě · to misunderstand误差wùchā · error失误shīwù · mistake

More words: Common Verbs

达到dádào · to reach代表dàibiǎo · representative代替dàitì · to replace打交道dǎjiāodào · to come into contact with挡dǎng · to block导致dǎozhì · to lead to到达dàodá · to reach登记dēngjì · to register (one’s name)

FAQs

耽误 (dānwu) means “to delay” or “to hold up”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it dānwu: dān with a 1st tone, then wu with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 耽误 is written 耽誤. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type danwu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 耽误 from the suggestions. Typing danwu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
耽误 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.