HSK 1 · Common Verbs

叫 jiào “to be called” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 叫 means

  1. to be called
  2. to call
  3. to shout
  4. to order
  5. to ask
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • by (indicates agent in the passive mood)

How to say 叫

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale叫jiào4th tone, falling

叫 in a sentence

  1. 不好意思，你叫什么名字？

    Bùhǎoyìsi, nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?

    Excuse me, what’s your name?

    Sentence #1202599 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 叫 can also mean “to tell someone to do something”

    请叫他等一下。

    Qǐng jiào tā děng yíxià.

    Please ask him to wait a moment.

    Sentence #659868 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 叫 can also mean “to bark” or “to call out”

    狗在叫。

    Gǒu zài jiào.

    The dog is barking.

    Sentence #2482139 from Tatoeba

How 叫 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 叫 (jiào) with each of its parts in a different colour
叫jiàoto shout
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 丩to connect · jiūSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 丩 (jiū) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiào.

How to write 叫

叫 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 叫

More words: Common Verbs

看见kànjiàn · to see没有méiyǒu · not to have是shì · to be下雨xiàyǔ · to rain阻拦zǔlán · to stop阻挠zǔnáo · to obstruct遵循zūnxún · to follow作废zuòfèi · to become invalid

FAQs

叫 (jiào) means “to be called” or “to call”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it jiào: jiào with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 叫 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 叫 from the suggestions. Typing jiao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
叫 is an HSK 1 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.