弹吉他(tán jí tā) - to play the guitar in Mandarin

弹吉他 (tán jí tā) means to play the guitar. 弹 (tán) is the verb for plucking or playing a stringed instrument with the fingers, and 吉他 (jí tā) is a phonetic borrowing of the English word "guitar".

Because 吉他 (jí tā) is a loanword, its two syllables do not carry separate meaning the way 爬 (pá) and 山 (shān) do inside 爬山 (pá shān, "to climb hills"). Treat 吉他 (jí tā) as a single noun that happens to be written with two characters.

The same verb 弹 (tán) extends to other stringed and keyboard instruments, so 弹钢琴 (tán gāng qín) is "to play the piano". Do not confuse 弹 (tán) with the same character read 弹 (dàn), which means "bullet" or "elastic" in that other tone.