HSK 2 · Common Verbs

告诉 gàosu “to tell” in Chinese

Traditional 告訴

What 告诉 means

  1. to tell
  2. to inform
  3. to let know

How to say 告诉

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale告gào4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own诉suneutral tone, light and short

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

告诉 in a sentence

  1. 请告诉我你的名字。

    Qǐng gàosu wǒ nǐ de míngzi.

    Please tell me your name.

    Sentence #1053718 from Tatoeba

  2. 你能告诉我这是什么吗？

    Nǐ néng gàosu wǒ zhè shì shénme ma?

    Can you tell me what this is?

    Sentence #333977 from Tatoeba

  3. 你如果需要帮助，就告诉我。

    Nǐ rúguǒ xūyào bāngzhù, jiù gàosu wǒ.

    If you need any help, just let me know.

    Sentence #5613666 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 告诉 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 告 (gào) with each of its parts in a different colour
告gàoto say; to tell
  • 牛cow · niú
  • 口mouth · kǒu
The character 诉 (sù) with each of its parts in a different colour
诉sùto complainlight in 告诉
  • 讠speech form of 言 · yán
  • 斥to scold · chì

How to write 告诉

告 7 strokes · 诉 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 告诉

Words with 告

广告guǎnggào · advertisement告别gàobié · to say goodbye转告zhuǎngào · to pass on报告bàogào · to inform告辞gàocí · to take leave告诫gàojiè · to warn警告jǐnggào · to warn被告bèigào · defendant原告yuángào · plaintiff布告bùgào · notice

Words with 诉

诉讼sùsòng · lawsuit投诉tóusù · to complain

More words: Common Verbs

准备zhǔnbèi · to prepare知道zhīdao · to know (a fact)觉得juéde · to feel希望xīwàng · to hope问wèn · to ask开始kāishǐ · to begin运动yùndòng · to exercise洗xǐ · to wash

FAQs

告诉 (gàosu) means “to tell” or “to inform”. It is an HSK 2 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it gàosu: gào with a 4th tone, then su with a neutral 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, 告诉 is written 告訴. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gaosu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 告诉 from the suggestions. Typing gaosu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
告诉 is an HSK 2 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.