HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Thinking

懂得 dǒngde “to understand” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 懂得 means

  1. to understand
  2. to know
  3. to comprehend

How to say 懂得

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale懂dǒng3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own得deneutral tone, light and short

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

懂得 in a sentence

  1. 长大后你就会开始懂得这段话。

    Zhǎngdà hòu nǐ jiù huì kāishǐ dǒngde zhè duàn huà.

    You’ll understand these words when you grow up.

    Sentence #389974 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 你已经足够成熟了，应该懂得更多东西了。

    Nǐ yǐjīng zúgòu chéngshú le, yīnggāi dǒngde gèng duō dōngxi le.

    You’re mature enough now – you should know better.

    Sentence #13909954 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你懂得用这台相机吗？

    Nǐ dǒngde yòng zhè tái xiàngjī ma?

    Do you know how to use this camera?

    Sentence #403351 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 懂得 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 懂 (dǒng) with each of its parts in a different colour
懂dǒngto understand
  • 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
  • 董to direct · dǒngSound part

忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 董 (dǒng) hints at the sound. Compare it with dǒng.

The character 得 (de) with each of its parts in a different colour
得destructural particle: used after a verb
  • 彳step · chì
  • 旦dawn · dàn
  • 寸inch · cùn

Memory aidA hand 寸 picking up a shell, once used as money, while out on the road 彳: to get.

How to write 懂得

懂 15 strokes · 得 11 strokes

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

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

Words related to 懂得

Words with 懂

懂dǒng · to understand

Words with 得

得de · particle linking a verb to how it is done (e.g. 跑得快觉得juéde · to feel记得jìde · remember得到dédào · to get得分défēn · to score (points)认得rènde · to recognise获得huòdé · to obtain得意déyì · proud of oneself值得zhíde · to be worth来得及láidejí · to have enough time

More words: Thinking & Feeling

怕pà · to fear记jì · to remember关注guānzhù · to pay close attention to心里xīnlǐ · in one’s heart喜爱xǐ'ài · to like认得rènde · to recognise心xīn · heart感gǎn · (suffix) sense of …

FAQs

懂得 (dǒngde) means “to understand” or “to know”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it dǒngde: dǒng with a 3rd tone, then de with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 懂得 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dongde with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 懂得 from the suggestions. Typing dongde into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
懂得 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 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.