打电话
to make a phone call
HSK level
- Pinyin
- dǎ diànhuà
- Part of speech
- phrase
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 18
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 1
Stroke order for 打电话
打电话 is written with 18 strokes (打: 5, 电: 5, 话: 8). The animation replays automatically.
What does 打电话 mean?
打电话 (dǎ diànhuà) is the standard Mandarin verb phrase meaning 'to make a phone call.'
Literally 'hit/strike a phone-talk,' it pairs the all-purpose verb 打 (dǎ) — which in Chinese can mean 'to do, perform, make' for many small actions — with 电话 (diànhuà), 'phone / phone call.' Two things surprise English speakers: first, you don't 'call someone' directly in Chinese — you 给 (gěi) + person + 打电话, literally 'to-someone make-call,' as in 给我打电话 ('call me'); second, 打电话 covers the act of calling in general; to specify the recipient or topic, you add 给, 跟, or 和.
To answer the phone, use 接电话 (jiē diànhuà). To hang up, use 挂电话 (guà diànhuà).
Note: Works in any context — casual, professional, or written. To say who you're calling, add 给 + person: 给妈妈打电话 (call mom).
Character by character
Memory hook: Think of 打 as the universal 'do' verb — you 打 a call, 打 a taxi (打车), 打 a basketball game (打篮球). 打电话 = 'do an electric-talk.'
Hear 打电话 in real episodes
打电话 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
可是，有的人上了网，开始打电话、开会。
But some people go online and start making phone calls and having meetings.
Fast Plane Wi-Fi Brings Noisy Work Calls
Example sentences
我给妈妈打电话。
Wǒ gěi māma dǎ diànhuà.
I'm calling mom.
spoken
请打电话给我。
Qǐng dǎ diànhuà gěi wǒ.
Please give me a call.
neutral, polite
他在打电话。
Tā zài dǎ diànhuà.
He's on the phone.
spoken
晚上我打个电话给你。
Wǎnshang wǒ dǎ ge diànhuà gěi nǐ.
I'll give you a call tonight.
spoken
Common phrases with 打电话
Synonyms
通电话 emphasizes the connection or having a conversation by phone, often used in past-tense contexts: 我们通过电话 ('we've spoken by phone'). 打电话 is the act of making the call.
拨 specifically means 'to dial.' More technical and a bit dated now that nobody dials numbers manually. 打电话 is by far the more common everyday term.
Don't confuse 打电话 with
接电话 means 'to answer / pick up the phone' — the other side of the conversation. 打 = make the call; 接 = receive it.
Same verb 打 but means 'to hail a taxi / ride-hail.' 打 is a very flexible verb in Chinese — context tells you what action it means.
Frequently asked questions
Related words from the same episodes
Acquire it by listening
Meet 打电话 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
You just saw 打电话 in 1 episode. Fluentide keeps feeding you news episodes at your level, so this word — and thousands like it — resurface in real sentences until they stick. Full pinyin and translation every time. Free to start.