TongTong
Sign in

吩咐 (fēn fù) — to instruct, to tell (someone to do something), to order a task

Definition

吩咐 means a superior or elder casually tells someone to do a task — warmer and more colloquial than the formal 指示, and less urgent than 命令. 嘱咐 adds a tone of concern or advice.

verb
to instructto tell (someone to do something)to order a task

Examples

  • 吩咐。
    Lǎo bǎn fēn fù wǒ míng tiān shàng wǔ bǎ bào gào jiāo gěi tā.
    My boss told me to hand in the report to him tomorrow morning.
  • 吩咐。
    Mā ma fēn fù wǒ men chī wán fàn yào zì jǐ xǐ wǎn.
    Mom instructed us to wash our own dishes after eating.
  • 吩咐。
    Jīng lǐ fēn fù de rèn wu jīn tiān bì xū wán chéng.
    The task assigned by the manager must be completed today.

Origin

Single-morpheme word
构词法gòucífǎ
联绵liánmiánBound pair

Two characters that only ever appear together, spelling one ancient two-syllable word.

吩fēn
咐fù

The characters 吩 and 咐 carry no meaning of their own here; together they spell the word for instructing.

Sound-only characters

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
付
付fù咐
Same sound today

In 咐, the left part 口 means mouth, and the right part 付 provides the sound fù.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9HSK 2.0 Level 6Communication & Speech

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.