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打车 (dǎ chē) — to take a taxi; to hail a ride

Definition

打车 means taking a taxi as a passenger. Contrast with 开车 ('to drive a car') — 打车 is the rider, 开车 is the driver.

verb
to take a taxito hail a ride

Examples

  • 打车。
    Wǒ měi tiān dǎ chē qù shàng bān.
    I take a taxi to work every day.
  • 打车？
    Nǐ dǎ chē hái shì zǒu lù?
    Do you take a taxi or walk?
  • 。
    Wǒ dǎ le yí gè chē qù gōng sī.
    I called a taxi and went to the office.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

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

打dǎhail
车chēvehicle

打 means to hail or call, and 车 is a vehicle; together they mean to take a taxi.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng打dǎ
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.

Open 打 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 車; 车 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 車 was drawn as a carriage seen from above, with wheels on both sides and a shaft at the front; the simplified 车 is a later shorthand.

Open 车 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 2Vehicles

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