(dǎo) - to fall over, to pour; contrary to expectation; upside down in Mandarin
dǎoTraditional: 倒
Translation
to fall over, to pour; contrary to expectation; upside down
Word origin
倒 is a phono-semantic compound: 亻 (the person radical) gives the meaning, a person falling over, and 到 (dào) supplies the sound. It means 'to fall over, to topple', and 'to pour', and as an adverb 'on the contrary'.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 亻 (rén, person radical) + 到 (dào, phonetic)
Stroke order
倒
Examples
风，树。
The wind was too strong, and the tree fell over.
。
Please pour me a glass of water.
，。
He is actually a good person, just too busy.
。
The cup has fallen over.
。
Please pour me a cup of tea.
倒 has two main pronunciations. As dǎo (3rd tone) it means to fall over, topple, or collapse; it also means to go bankrupt or to change (vehicles). As dào (4th tone) it means to pour, to invert, or to move backwards. In a third common use, dào functions as an adverb meaning on the contrary or actually, introducing a fact that runs counter to expectations - this concessive use is very common in everyday speech.
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Go to my review queueThis word is part of lesson 11.