(tiāo) - to pick, to choose; to carry on a shoulder pole in Mandarin
tiāoTraditional: 挑
Translation
to pick, to choose; to carry on a shoulder pole
Word origin
A phono-semantic compound: the hand radical 扌 gives the sense, 兆 (zhào) gives the sound.
- Origin
- phono-semantic compound
- Root
- 扌 (hand, semantic) + 兆 (zhào, phonetic)
Stroke order
挑
Examples
。
She picked out a blue piece of clothing.
。
Pick one yourself.
。
He is very careful when choosing things.
桶。
The old man carried two buckets of water home on a shoulder pole.
，。
Do not be so fussy, this one is fine.
挑 (tiāo) is the hands-on verb for picking things out: fruit at a market, a shirt off a rail, one card from a fan of cards. It is more physical and more casual than 选择, which is the word for making a decision between options.
The second sense is older and still alive in the countryside: carrying a load slung from a pole across the shoulders, as in 挑水. The link is the shared hand radical and the idea of lifting something up.
The trap is the tone. These same characters are also read tiǎo in third tone, meaning to raise, poke or provoke, which is the reading inside 挑战 for challenge and 挑起 for stirring something up. Pick the wrong tone and you have gone from choosing a shirt to picking a fight.
Where this fits
Used in
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挑: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "挑" (to pick, to choose; to carry on a shoulder pole): 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 51.