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.
打dǎto hit; to strike
扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
丁part of the characterSound part
Memory aidA hand 扌 striking a nail 丁: to hit. It is now used for many actions, such as 打电话 (dǎ diànhuà) “to phone”.
电diànlightning
曰say · yuē
乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ
Memory aidSimplified from 電: lightning under the rain 雨: electricity.
话huàdialect
讠speech form of 言 · yán
舌tongue · shé
Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.
How to write 打电话
打 5 strokes · 电 5 strokes · 话 8 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 打电话 (dǎ diànhuà). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
打电话 (dǎ diànhuà) means “to make a phone call” or “to make a telephone call”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it dǎ diànhuà: dǎ with a 3rd tone, then diàn with a 4th tone, then huà with a 4th 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, 打电话 is written 打電話. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dadianhua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 打电话 from the suggestions. Typing dadianhua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
打电话 is an HSK 1 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.
打dǎ3rd tone, dipping
电diàn4th tone, falling
