HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Things

电话 diànhuà “telephone” in Chinese

Traditional 電話

What 电话 means

  1. telephone
  2. phone call
  3. phone number

Measure word 部 bù or 通 tōng · 一部电话 yí bù diànhuà

How to say 电话

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale电diàn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale话huà4th tone, falling

电话 in a sentence

  1. 你的电话是多少？

    Nǐ de diànhuà shì duōshǎo?

    What’s your phone number?

    Sentence #10966785 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我一小时后给你打电话。

    Wǒ yì xiǎoshí hòu gěi nǐ dǎ diànhuà.

    I’ll call you in an hour.

    Sentence #13922461 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 对不起，你打错电话了。

    Duìbuqǐ, nǐ dǎcuò diànhuà le.

    Sorry, you have the wrong number.

    Sentence #420620 from Tatoeba

How 电话 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 电 (diàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
电diànlightning
  • 曰say · yuē
  • 乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ

Memory aidSimplified from 電: lightning under the rain 雨: electricity.

The character 话 (huà) with each of its parts in a different colour
话huàdialect
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 舌tongue · shé

Memory aidSpeech 讠 from the tongue 舌: talk, words.

How to write 电话

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.

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

Words related to 电话

Words with 电

电脑diànnǎo · computer电视diànshì · television电影diànyǐng · movie打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call电影院diànyǐngyuàn · cinema电diàn · electricity电梯diàntī · lift电子书diànzǐshū · e-book电子邮件diànzǐ yóujiàn · email电台diàntái · radio station

Words with 话

打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call说话shuōhuà · to speak的话dehuà · if (ends a conditional clause)对话duìhuà · dialogue笑话xiàohua · joke普通话pǔtōnghuà · Mandarin废话fèihuà · nonsense实话shíhuà · truth神话shénhuà · legend话题huàtí · subject (of a talk or conversation)

More words: Things & Objects

男朋友nánpéngyou · boyfriend女朋友nǚpéngyou · girlfriend事shì · matter小朋友xiǎopéngyǒu · child电子书diànzǐshū · e-book银行卡yínhángkǎ · bank card图tú · picture油yóu · oil

FAQs

电话 (diànhuà) means “telephone” or “phone call”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it diànhuà: 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, 电话 is written 電話. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 部 (bù) or 通 (tōng). For example, one telephone is 一部电话 (yí bù diànhuà).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dianhua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 电话 from the suggestions. Typing dianhua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
电话 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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.