(dǎ bàn) - to dress up, to do oneself up; someone's look or get-up in Mandarin
dǎbànTraditional: 打扮
Translation
to dress up, to do oneself up; someone's look or get-up
Word origin
A compound of 打 (dǎ, a general verb of doing) and 扮 (bàn, to play a part, to make up), so to put a look together.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 打 (dǎ, to do) + 扮 (bàn, to play a part)
Stroke order
打
扮
Examples
。
She has done herself up beautifully today.
。
He never bothers much about how he looks.
。
The children dressed up as little animals.
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She spent an hour getting ready before going out.
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Her look has real personality.
打扮 (dǎ bàn) covers everything you do to yourself before leaving the house: clothes, hair, makeup, the whole assembly. It is the verb for getting ready in the mirror sense, and the same two characters work as a noun for the resulting look.
Two patterns carry most of the usage. 打扮得 plus an adjective describes how the result came out, as in 打扮得很时髦. 打扮成 plus a noun means dress up as, which is what you want for costumes and disguises.
The English speaker's trap is 穿. 穿 is to put a specific garment on your body and needs an object: 穿裙子. 打扮 needs no object at all and describes the effort rather than the item. Saying 我在穿 to mean I am getting ready leaves your listener waiting for the rest of the sentence.
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打扮: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "打扮" (to dress up, to do oneself up; someone's look or get-up): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 55.