Learning Chinese - Sepcial usage of “”打“”dǎ

What are we actually "hitting" at?

This is the tricky part of Chinese,some verbs can go with nouns that appear to have no connection at all!Like 打 "to hit",depends on the nouns that it combines with,the meaning can change into something you wont even believe,keep on reading to see if you are "hitting" it right!

打电话 dǎ diànhuà

Meaning:to make a phone call,to talk on the phone

Example:

My elder brother is talking on the phone.

Gēgē zài dǎ diànhuà

哥哥在打电话

打算 dǎ suàn

Meaning:to plan,to intent.

Explanation:算（ suàn ）as a verb is to count,while as a noun it is "abacus",打算（dǎ suàn ）literally means to "hit(use)',an abacus,probably what ancient Chinese people did when they were planning some big,like a wedding.

Example:

Wǒ dǎ suàn bā yuè huíqù běI jīng.

我打算八月回去北京。

I plan to go back to Beijing in Aug.

打扫 dǎ sǎo

Meaning: to clean(up)

Explanation:

when you are hitting the floor with the broom,you are cleaning the floor,of course you'll need to hit it right.

Example:

This week is my turn the clean up the room.

这星期轮到我打扫房间。

zhè xīngqí lúndào wǒ dǎ sǎo fàngjiān

Source: aoe ChinEase