HSK 4 · Verbs

掉 diào “to fall” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 掉 means

  1. to fall
  2. to drop
  3. to lag behind
  4. to lose
  5. to go missing
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to reduce

How to say 掉

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale掉diào4th tone, falling

掉 in a sentence

  1. 你的眼镜掉在地上了。

    Nǐ de yǎnjìng diào zài dìshang le.

    Your glasses fell on the floor.

    Sentence #502855 from Tatoeba

  2. 我以为我掉了什么。

    Wǒ yǐwéi wǒ diào le shénme.

    I thought I’d dropped something.

    Sentence #10304809 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  3. 他开始掉头发了。

    Tā kāishǐ diào tóufa le.

    He’s starting to lose his hair.

    Sentence #791594 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 掉 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 掉 (diào) with each of its parts in a different colour
掉diàoto fall
  • 扌hand form of 手 · shǒuMeaning part
  • 卓profound · zhuóSound part

扌 hints at the meaning (hand); 卓 (zhuó) hints at the sound. Compare it with diào.

How to write 掉

掉 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 掉

More words: Common Verbs

打针dǎzhēn · to give or have an injection戴dài · to wear (glasses当dāng · to act as调查diàochá · investigation丢diū · to lose堵车dǔchē · traffic jam放松fàngsōng · to relax发生fāshēng · to happen

FAQs

掉 (diào) means “to fall” or “to drop”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it diào: diào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 掉 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type diao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 掉 from the suggestions. Typing diao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
掉 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.