HSK 3 · Places

地铁 dìtiě “subway” in Chinese

Traditional 地鐵

What 地铁 means

  1. subway
  2. metro
  3. underground train
  4. underground railway
  5. subway train

How to say 地铁

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale地dì4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale铁tiě3rd tone, dipping

地铁 in a sentence

  1. 在北京乘地铁很便宜。

    Zài Běijīng chéng dìtiě hěn piányi.

    Taking the subway in Beijing is cheap.

    Sentence #1746076 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 我搭地铁上学。

    Wǒ dā dìtiě shàngxué.

    I take the subway to school.

    Sentence #8795139 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 最近的地铁站在哪里？

    Zuìjìn de dìtiězhàn zài nǎlǐ?

    Where’s the nearest subway station?

    Sentence #623171 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 地铁 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 地 (dì) with each of its parts in a different colour
地dìearth
  • 土earth · tǔMeaning part
  • 也also · yěSound part

土 hints at the meaning (earth); 也 (yě) hints at the sound. Compare it with dì.

Memory aidEarth 土 gives the meaning: the ground, a place.

The character 铁 (tiě) with each of its parts in a different colour
铁tiěiron
  • 钅gold form of 金 · jīnMeaning part
  • 失to lose · shīSound part

钅 hints at the meaning (gold); 失 (shī) hints at the sound. Compare it with tiě.

How to write 地铁

地 6 strokes · 铁 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 地铁

Words with 地

地dì · earth地方dìfang · place地图dìtú · map外地wàidì · another part of the country草地cǎodì · lawn地点dìdiǎn · place地址dìzhǐ · address地球dìqiú · the earth当地dāngdì · local地区dìqū · region

Words with 铁

高铁gāotiě · high-speed rail钢铁gāngtiě · steel斩钉截铁zhǎndīngjiétiě · resolute and decisive

More words: Places & Directions

北方běifāng · north超市chāoshì · supermarket城市chéngshì · city or town地方dìfang · place地图dìtú · map电梯diàntī · lift东dōng · East附近fùjìn · nearby

FAQs

地铁 (dìtiě) means “subway” or “metro”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it dìtiě: dì with a 4th tone, then tiě with a 3rd 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, 地铁 is written 地鐵. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ditie with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 地铁 from the suggestions. Typing ditie into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
地铁 is an HSK 3 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.