HSK 6 · Verbs

报复 bàofu “to retaliate” in Chinese

Traditional 報復

What 报复 means

  1. to retaliate
  2. revenge
  3. to make reprisals
  4. retaliation

How to say 报复

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale报bào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own复funeutral tone, light and short

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

报复 in a sentence

  1. 我上次赢了他，他说这次要报复。

    Wǒ shàngcì yíng le tā, tā shuō zhè cì yào bàofu.

    I beat him last time, so he says he’s going to get his revenge this time.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 不要因为一点小事就报复别人。

    Búyào yīnwèi yìdiǎn xiǎoshì jiù bàofu biéren.

    Don’t take revenge on someone over something small.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 报复 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 报 (bào) with each of its parts in a different colour
报bàoto report; to inform; to announce
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 卩seal · jié
  • 又again · yòu
The character 复 (fù) with each of its parts in a different colour
复fùto go and returnlight in 报复
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 日sun · rì
  • 夂go · zhǐ

How to write 报复

报 7 strokes · 复 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 报复

Words with 报

报纸bàozhǐ · newspaper报名bàomíng · to sign up报道bàodào · to report (news)报到bàodào · to report for duty报告bàogào · to inform预报yùbào · forecast报社bàoshè · newspaper office报仇bàochóu · to take revenge报答bàodá · to repay (a kindness)报酬bàochou · pay

Words with 复

复习fùxí · revise复印fùyìn · to photocopy复杂fùzá · complicated恢复huīfù · to recover重复chóngfù · to repeat复制fùzhì · to duplicate反复fǎnfù · repeatedly答复dáfù · to reply修复xiūfù · to repair复兴fùxīng · revival

More words: Common Verbs

伴随bànsuí · to accompany报仇bàochóu · to take revenge报答bàodá · to repay (a kindness)爆发bàofā · to break out保管bǎoguǎn · to look after暴露bàolù · to expose包围bāowéi · to surround爆炸bàozhà · to explode

FAQs

报复 (bàofu) means “to retaliate” or “revenge”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it bàofu: bào with a 4th tone, then fu 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, 报复 is written 報復. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type baofu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 报复 from the suggestions. Typing baofu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
报复 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.