HSK 6 · Society

打官司 dǎguānsi “to go to court” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 打官司 means

  1. to go to court
  2. to file a lawsuit
  3. to sue
  4. to dispute

How to say 打官司

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale打dǎ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale官guān1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own司sineutral tone, light and short

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

打官司 in a sentence

  1. 为了这件小事打官司，不值得。

    Wèile zhè jiàn xiǎoshì dǎguānsi, bù zhíde.

    Going to court over such a small thing isn’t worth it.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 他们正在跟房东打官司。

    Tāmen zhèngzài gēn fángdōng dǎguānsi.

    They’re taking their landlord to court.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 打官司 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 打 (dǎ) with each of its parts in a different colour
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”.

The character 官 (guān) with each of its parts in a different colour
官guāngovernment official
  • 宀roof · mián
  • 㠯according to
The character 司 (sī) drawn as one shape
司sīto take charge oflight in 打官司

司 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 打官司

打 5 strokes · 官 8 strokes · 司 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 打官司

Words with 打

打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call打dǎ · to hit打车dǎchē · to take a taxi (in town)打开dǎkāi · to open打篮球dǎlánqiú · to play basketball打扫dǎsǎo · to clean打算dǎsuàn · to plan打扮dǎban · to decorate打扰dǎrǎo · to disturb打印dǎyìn · to print (with a printer)

Words with 官

官guān · government official器官qìguān · organ (of the body)官方guānfāng · official

Words with 司

公司gōngsī · company司机sījī · driver司法sīfǎ · judicial司令sīlìng · commander

More words: Society & Law

触犯chùfàn · to violate处分chǔfèn · disciplinary action慈善císhàn · charity大臣dàchén · minister (of a monarchy)逮捕dàibǔ · to arrest歹徒dǎitú · criminal党dǎng · (political) party当事人dāngshìrén · party (involved)

FAQs

打官司 (dǎguānsi) means “to go to court” or “to file a lawsuit”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it dǎguānsi: dǎ with a 3rd tone, then guān with a 1st tone, then si with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 打官司 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type daguansi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 打官司 from the suggestions. Typing daguansi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
打官司 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.