倒 meaning in English

dǎo

to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally; to fail; to go bankrupt

HSK 2verb10 strokes

Meaning of 倒

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

dǎo

to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally
to fail; to go bankrupt
to overthrow
to change (trains or buses)
to move around
to resell at a profit

dào

to invert; to place upside down or frontside back
to pour out
to tip out; to dump
inverted; upside down; reversed
to go backward
contrary to what one might expect; but; yet

How to use 倒

Read as dǎo, it means to fall or collapse, as in 摔倒 (shuāidǎo, to slip and fall) or 倒闭 (dǎobì, to go bankrupt). Read as dào, it means to pour or to turn upside down, and it can also mean "actually" or "contrary to expectation". Example: 请给我倒一杯水。(Qǐng gěi wǒ dào yì bēi shuǐ.) Please pour me a glass of water.

倒 is made of 亻 (person) next to 到 (dào, to arrive). Picture a person who finally arrives and then falls over from exhaustion, and the sound 到 reminds you how to say it.

Common mistake: Learners often use the wrong tone. It is dǎo for falling, as in 他摔倒了 (tā shuāidǎo le), but dào for pouring and for "upside down", as in 倒水 (dào shuǐ) and 倒是 (dàoshì). Also do not confuse 倒 with 到 (dào, to arrive), which has no 亻 on the left.

倒 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

那nà倒dǎo是shì个gè不bù错cuò的de主zhǔ意yì。

That's not a bad thought.

他tā工gōng作zuò得de太tài多duō，病bìng倒dào了le。

He worked too hard, and became sick.

一yī周zhōu后hòu这zhè个ge房fáng子zi倒dào了le。

Down fell the house a week later.

他tā是shì倒dào数shǔ第dì三sān个gè到dào的de。

He was the last but two to arrive.

我wǒ时shí差chà还hái没méi倒dào过guò来lái呢ne。

Actually, I still haven't gotten over my jet lag.

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

倒 dǎo · to fall · 10 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 倒.

倒闭	dǎobì	to go bankrupt; to close down
倒车	dǎochē	to change buses, trains etc
摔倒	shuāidǎo	to fall down; to slip and fall
倒是	dàoshì	contrary to what one might expect; actually
倒霉	dǎoméi	to have bad luck; to be out of luck
打倒	dǎdǎo	to overthrow; to knock down
倒下	dǎoxia	to collapse; to topple over
倒数	dàoshǔ	to count backwards (from 10 down to 0); to count down
晕倒	yūndǎo	to faint; to swoon
倒计时	dàojìshí	to count down; countdown
倒塌	dǎotā	to collapse (of building); to topple over
颠倒	diāndǎo	to turn upside down; to reverse

Questions about 倒

What does 倒 mean?

倒 (dǎo) means "to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally; to fail; to go bankrupt" and is used as a verb.

How do you write 倒?

倒 is made of 1 character: 倒 (10 strokes). That is 10 strokes in total.

Is 倒 an HSK word?

Yes. 倒 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

What does 倒霉 (dǎoméi) mean and how is it used?

倒霉 means to have bad luck. People say 真倒霉 (zhēn dǎoméi) when something annoying happens, like missing a bus. It is very common in casual speech.

How does 倒 work in a sentence meaning "actually" or "but"?

Read as dào, 倒 goes before the verb or adjective to show something is contrary to what you expected. For example, 这个菜不贵，倒挺好吃。(Zhège cài bú guì, dào tǐng hǎochī.) This dish is not expensive, but it is actually quite tasty. 倒是 (dàoshì) is used the same way.