How to Write 嘟 (dū) — Meaning “(Onomatopoeia) Toot / To pout”

Imagine a car driving by and going "Dū dū!" — the left side 口 is the horn and the right side 都 looks like a car with a driver. To remember the pout meaning, picture someone saying "Dū" while sticking out their lips like a horn.

Write left radical 口 first (three strokes: vertical, horizontal bend, bottom horizontal), then the right part 都 which has 9 strokes — start with the top 者 (first horizontal, then vertical, horizontal, left-falling, vertical, horizontal, horizontal, then the bottom ⻏ (Ear radical) with two strokes: horizontal folding and vertical. Common mistake: making the left 口 too big or too small — it should be compact and sit at the middle height of the right side.

嘟 (dū) is an onomatopoeia for tooting or a verb for pouting, using the mouth radical with the phonetic 都. 㕡 (què) is very rare and means "hole" or "cavity," with a different phonetic. 唪 (fěng) means "to recite" or "to chant," also with a different pronunciation and meaning — they are distinct in both sound and usage.

嘟 is commonly used in daily speech and writing for car horns (嘟嘟, honk-honk) or to describe pouting (嘟嘴, to purse lips angrily or cutely). It also appears in 嘟囔 (to mumble), often used for complaining quietly. You might see it in children's books or informal messages, but it is not used in formal HSK vocabulary.

Common words containing 嘟 include: 嘟嘟 (dū dū) — (Onomatopoeia) Toot-toot / Honk-honk; 嘟嘴 (dū zuǐ) — To pout / To purse one's lips; 嘟囔 (dū nāng) — To mumble / To mutter.