Dictionary › 交代

交代

jiāo dài

Old HSK 6 HSK 3.0 level 7-9 2-character word

交代 (jiāo dài) means "to transfer (duties to sb else); to give instructions; to tell (sb to do sth); to explain; to give an account; to brief". It is an HSK 3.0 level 7-9 word, and was HSK 6 in the old six-level list.

What 交代 means

1. to transfer (duties to sb else)
2. to give instructions; to tell (sb to do sth)
3. to explain; to give an account; to brief
4. to confess; to account for oneself
5. (jocular) to come to a bad end

The characters in 交代

• 交jiāoto hand over; to deliver; to pay (money); to turn over; to make friends…
• 代dàito be a substitute for; to act on behalf of; to replace; to substitute; generation…

Example sentences

• 把玛丽交代你去做的事告诉汤姆。
  Bǎ Mǎlì jiāodài nǐ qù zuò de shì gàosu Tāngmǔ.
  Tell Tom what Mary asked you to do.

Sounds the same

Read jiāo dài, tone for tone, but written differently.

• 胶带adhesive tape; magnetic tape
• 交待variant of 交代

Where 交代 is taught

In the GraphChinese course it is part of HSK 6 Vocabulary · jiàng–jiāo (HSK 6), each one a topic in the dependency graph of HSK 1–6 that opens only once its prerequisites are solid.

Go deeper

• Every HSK 6 word, with the rest of its level.
• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read jiāo dài correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.