HSK 4 · Verbs

打招呼 dǎzhāohu “to say hello” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 打招呼 means

  1. to say hello
  2. to greet
  3. to give a heads-up
  4. to greet sb by word or action
  5. to give prior notice

How to say 打招呼

  • 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招zhāo1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own呼huneutral tone, light and short

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

打招呼 in a sentence

  1. 那女孩跟我微笑打招呼。

    Nà nǚhái gēn wǒ wēixiào dǎzhāohu.

    That girl smiled and said hello to me.

    Sentence #2138619 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她在街上看到我也不跟我打招呼。

    Tā zài jiēshang kàndào wǒ yě bù gēn wǒ dǎzhāohu.

    She didn’t even say hello when she saw me in the street.

    Sentence #401685 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我把你认成了别人，所以才没有和你打招呼。

    Wǒ bǎ nǐ rèn chéng le biéren, suǒyǐ cái méiyǒu hé nǐ dǎzhāohu.

    I didn’t greet you because I mistook you for somebody else.

    Sentence #373394 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 打招呼 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 招 (zhāo) with each of its parts in a different colour
招zhāoto recruit
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒu
  • 召imperial decree · zhào
The character 呼 (hū) with each of its parts in a different colour
呼hūto calllight in 打招呼
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 乎interrogative or exclamatory final particle · hūSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 乎 (hū) hints at the sound. Compare it with hu.

How to write 打招呼

打 5 strokes · 招 8 strokes · 呼 8 strokes

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

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

Words related to 打招呼

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 招

招聘zhāopìn · to invite applications for a job招待zhāodài · to hold a reception招收zhāoshōu · to recruit招标zhāobiāo · to invite tenders

Words with 呼

呼吸hūxī · to breathe称呼chēnghu · to call呼唤hūhuàn · to call呼吁hūyù · to appeal呼啸hūxiào · to whistle

More words: Thinking & Talking

表扬biǎoyáng · to praise猜cāi · to guess成功chénggōng · success道歉dàoqiàn · to apologise对话duìhuà · dialogue反对fǎnduì · to oppose敢gǎn · to dare感觉gǎnjué · feeling

FAQs

打招呼 (dǎzhāohu) means “to say hello” or “to greet”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it dǎzhāohu: dǎ with a 3rd tone, then zhāo with a 1st tone, then hu with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 打招呼 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dazhaohu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 打招呼 from the suggestions. Typing dazhaohu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
打招呼 is an HSK 4 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.