About
The character "哒" originated in relatively modern times, primarily serving as a phonetic borrowing to transliterate foreign sounds, such as in the word "哒嗪" (diazine) in chemistry. Its structure combines the mouth radical (口), indicating a sound-related function, with the phonetic component "达" (dá), which provides its pronunciation. The traditional counterpart of this character is "噠", which follows the same principle but uses the traditional form of the phonetic component, "達". Over time, while retaining its minor role in transliteration, "哒" has been adopted into colloquial Mandarin as a sentence-final particle, a usage that emerged by borrowing its sound to mimic a softened, friendly, or emphatic tone in informal speech, thus expanding its function from mere sound imitation to a carrier of linguistic mood and attitude.
Example Sentences Hide
雨滴哒哒地响。
马蹄声哒哒地传来。
今天天气真好哒！
键盘发出哒哒的打字声。
他走路时，鞋子哒哒地敲打着地面。
小雨哒哒地落在窗户上，听起来很舒服。
远处传来哒哒的机枪声，令人不安。
在寂静的夜晚，只有钟摆哒哒地走着，提醒着时间的流逝。