HSK 3.0 Level 4 · Everyday Verbs

待 dāi “to stay” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 待 means

  1. to stay
  2. to remain

How to say 待

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale待dāi1st tone, high and level

待 in a sentence

  1. 您会待很久吗？

    Nín huì dāi hěn jiǔ ma?

    Will you be staying long?

    Sentence #464901 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你最好今天待在家休息。

    Nǐ zuìhǎo jīntiān dāi zài jiā xiūxi.

    You’d better stay at home and rest today.

    Sentence #599146 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我可以和你一起待在这儿吗？

    Wǒ kěyǐ hé nǐ yìqǐ dāi zài zhèr ma?

    Can I stay here with you?

    Sentence #8589663 from Tatoeba

How 待 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 待 (dài) with each of its parts in a different colour
待dāito stay; to remain
  • 彳step · chì
  • 寺court · sì

How to write 待

待 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 待

Words with 待

接待jiēdài · to receive (visitors or guests)等待děngdài · to wait对待duìdài · to treat招待zhāodài · to hold a reception期待qīdài · to look forward to待遇dàiyù · treatment看待kàndài · to regard款待kuǎndài · to entertain (guests)亏待kuīdài · to treat unfairly虐待nüèdài · to abuse

More words: Everyday Verbs

唱chàng · to sing开车kāichē · to drive a car睡shuì · to sleep加入jiārù · to join通tōng · to go through排pái · to line up留下liúxia · to leave behind值zhí · to be worth

FAQs

待 (dāi) means “to stay” or “to remain”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word.
Say it dāi: dāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 待 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 待 from the suggestions. Typing dai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
待 is an HSK 3.0 Level 4 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 6 word list. It is not on the older 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.