▎掉, diào, (Ptc), Verb Particle, separated from

 

Function The verb particle 掉 expresses the meaning that a noun is disposed of, separated from where it was before. Its precise meaning is determined by the main verb of the sentence.

1 廚房裡的垃圾，我拿出去丟掉了。 (away and gone)

Chúfáng lǐ de lèsè, wǒ ná chūqù diūdiào le.

I removed the garbage from the kitchen.

2 誰把我的咖啡喝掉了？ (up and gone)

Shéi bǎ wǒ de kāfēi hēdiào le?

Who drank my coffee?

3 他每次一走進房間就把鞋子踢掉。(off)

Tā měi cì yì zǒujìn fángjiān jiù bǎ xiézi tīdiào.

Every time, as soon as he walks into a room, he kicks off his shoes.

4 桌子上的茶，我還沒喝呢，他怎麼拿去倒掉了？ (out and away)

Zhuōzi shàng de chá, wǒ hái méi hē ne, tā zěnme náqù dàodiào le?

The tea on the table, I hadn’t drunk it yet. Why did he take it and pour it out?

5 他上個月把舊車賣掉，買了新車。(off)

Tā shàng ge yuè bǎ jiù chē màidiào, mǎile xīn chē.

Last month, he sold his old car and bought a new one.

 

Usage

(1) V＋掉 can also be used in the potential patterns, i.e., V＋得＋掉; V＋不＋掉. For example, 衣服上的咖啡洗得掉嗎？Yīfú shàng de kāfēi xǐdediào ma? ‘Can the coffee on the clothes be washed out?’

(2) Because 掉 indicates ‘separation from’, only action verbs that can cause something to ‘be removed’ in some way can be used with 掉. These verbs have an ‘outward’ (away from the subject) direction, e.g., 丟diū ‘to throw’, 脫tuō ‘to take off, remove, undress’, 忘wàng ‘to forget’, 賣mài ‘to sell’, etc. Most verbs that indicate the obtaining of something i.e., ‘inward’, cannot be used. For example, ＊他把車買掉 (＊Tā bǎ chē mǎidiào ‘He bought his car.’) isn’t grammatical.

(3) If the verb used in this pattern is an outward transitive action verb, like 喝hē ‘to drink’, 吃chī ‘to eat’, 忘wàng ‘to forget’, 賣mài ‘to sell’, 脫tuō ‘to take off, remove, undress’, 倒dào ‘to pour, discard’ (see 把bǎ entries), 掉 is often omitted. E.g., both 他上個月把機車賣掉了 (Tā shàng ge yuè bǎ jīchē màidiào le. ‘He sold his car last month.’) and 他上個月把機車賣了(Tā shàng gè yuè bǎ jīchē mài le. ‘He sold his car last month.’) are equally good sentences.

(4) The semantic meaning of the verb particles 掉diào ‘away, off’ and 走zǒu ‘away, off’ overlaps a bit. Both suggest that an ‘object’ is removed in some way from the ‘main body’. When using 掉, the agent does not accompany the object when it leaves the main body. Use of 走, on the other hand, indicates that the agent goes away with the object. E.g., 他離開的時候，不小心把我的悠遊卡帶走了。Tā líkāi de shíhòu, bù xiǎoxīn bǎ wǒ de Yōuyóu kǎ dàizǒu le. ‘When he left, he inadvertently took my EasyCard with him.’