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要得 (yào dé) — good; fine; desirable; well done; acceptable; OK

Definition

要得 (yào dé) is a colloquial affirmative, like 'okay / fine / that'll do' — used to agree with or praise something. Note the pronunciation: 得 here is děi's homophone, not dé.

verb
goodfinedesirablewell doneacceptableOK

Examples

  • 要得，。
    yào dé, Wǒ mǎ shàng jiù qù bàn.
    Okay, I'll go handle it right away.
  • 要得！
    Nǐ zuò de cài zhēn yào dé!
    The dish you made is really good!
  • 要得。
    Zhè ge zhǔ yì hěn yào dé.
    This idea is great.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

要 began as a drawing of a person with both hands pointing to the waist.

Open 要 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The old form 㝵 showed a hand picking up a cowry, meaning to obtain; later changes turned that picture into 得.

Open 得 →
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