坦白 (tǎn bái) — (adjective) honest, forthcoming; (verb) to conf… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

坦白 works as both an adjective ('honest, forthcoming') and a verb ('to confess'); as a verb it usually takes a crime or mistake as object, closer in feel to 交代 than to the purely descriptive 坦率 / 坦诚.

adjective

honestforthcoming

verb

to confess

Examples

坦白，。
Tā hěn tǎn bái, cóng bù yǐn mán zì jǐ de cuò wù.
He is very honest and never hides his mistakes.
，坦白。
Zài fǎ tíng shàng, tā tǎn bái le suǒ yǒu zuì xíng.
In court, he confessed to all the crimes.
坦白，。
tǎn bái Dì shuō, wǒ bù xǐ huan zhè ge jì huà.
To be honest, I don't like this plan.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

坦 means open and 白 means plain, so together they describe honesty or a clear confession.

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.

土旦坦

Meaning part形符xíngfú

土土tǔearth

Sound part声符shēngfú

旦

旦dàn坦tǎn

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

坦 is made from 土 (earth) plus 旦, which provides the sound. The earth part shows the sense is about ground.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

白 is thought to picture either an acorn or a human head.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 7-9 HSK 2.0 Level 6 Communication & Speech Personality & Traits 3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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