打仗 (dǎ zhàng) — to fight a battle; to go to war | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

An everyday verb meaning 'to fight (in a war)' — the plain spoken term for going to battle. 战斗 and 作战 are more formal and lean toward 'combat' as a noun or abstract concept.

verb

to fight a battleto go to war

Examples

打仗。
Tā men zhèng zài dǎ zhàng.
They are fighting a battle.
。
Qù nián zhè lǐ dǎ le yì chǎng dà zhàng.
A big battle was fought here last year.
。
Wǒ cóng lái méi dǎ guò zhàng.
I have never fought in a war.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

仗zhàngbattle

打 means fight and 仗 means battle, so 打仗 is to go to war.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

扌丁打

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

丁

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

打 uses 扌, a hand, to show an action done with the hand, and 丁 to give the sound.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Military & Defense 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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