HSK 6 · Society

埋伏 máifu “to lie in ambush” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 埋伏 means

  1. to lie in ambush
  2. ambush
  3. to lie in wait for
  4. to lie low

How to say 埋伏

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale埋mái2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own伏funeutral tone, light and short

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

埋伏 in a sentence

  1. 我们刚刚收到情报，敌方正在前方两英里处埋伏。

    Wǒmen gānggāng shōudào qíngbào, dífāng zhèngzài qiánfāng liǎng yīnglǐ chù máifu.

    We’ve just received word that the enemy is lying in ambush two miles ahead.

    Sentence #670499 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 埋伏 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 埋 (mán) with each of its parts in a different colour
埋máito bury
  • 土earth · tǔMeaning part
  • 里village · lǐSound part

土 hints at the meaning (earth); 里 (lǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with mái.

The character 伏 (fú) with each of its parts in a different colour
伏fúto lean overlight in 埋伏
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 犬dog · quǎn

How to write 埋伏

埋 10 strokes · 伏 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 埋伏

Words with 埋

埋怨mányuàn · to complain埋没máimò · to bury埋葬máizàng · to bury (the dead)

Words with 伏

起伏qǐfú · to rise and fall

More words: Society & Law

领袖lǐngxiù · leader礼尚往来lǐshàngwǎnglái · courtesy calls for reciprocity流氓liúmáng · hooligan掠夺lüèduó · to plunder面子miànzi · face名誉míngyù · reputation民间mínjiān · folk民主mínzhǔ · democracy

FAQs

埋伏 (máifu) means “to lie in ambush” or “ambush”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it máifu: mái with a 2nd tone, then fu with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 埋伏 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type maifu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 埋伏 from the suggestions. Typing maifu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
埋伏 is an HSK 6 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.