Thursday 20 March 2008

報到 – bào dào – check-in



The first character of today’s word is 報, bào means to announce or report. It also somewhat confusingly, means a newspaper.

The second character 到, dào means to arrive.

The sense of the words in this case is “to announce one’s arrival” which in a hotel setting is exactly what you do when you check-in.

bào is pronounced like the English word bough, with a 4th or falling tone.

dào is pronounced like dow in the word endow, also with a 4th or falling tone.