# 投：多<投>几遍



## yuechu

大家好！

I was recently watching a 电视剧 where a mother is telling her maid about the tasks she still has to do. She mentions that she must handwash her son's clothes, and then says 多投几遍. Does anyone know the exact meaning of 投 here? I couldn't find a translation that fit (at least not in the dictionary I was using).
Thanks!


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## Oswinw011

I don't know its meaning either. You can take it as from a dialect. I guess it's washing.
Edit: just checked and found it's a dialect from northern China. meaning to rinse. The maid needs to rinse the clothes several times.


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## yuechu

Oh, interesting! Thanks for your help, Oswin! 😃


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## gingerbread-mann

In my opinion, 多投几遍 means to wash the clothes for more times. I come from north of China, and I might hear this once or twice?  Maybe this collocate comes from south of China? or i think it is possible to use this in a Chinese novel. This still needs a further research.


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## Zhiyi

gingerbread-mann said:


> Maybe this collocate comes from south of China?


Exactly，I use it in Sichuan dialect，but 投 in our dialect means 抖（same as shaking），in this drama，maybe 多投几遍 means shaking the clothes several times after you washed them（for avoiding dry clothes get wrinkled）. 

By the way，in Chinese traditional culture，多投几遍（shaking the clothes） is a interesting detail in daily life，it's a great character shows someone is careful and considerate，especially Chinese mothers.


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## SuperXW

Zhiyi said:


> Exactly，I use it in Sichuan dialect，but 投 in our dialect means 抖（same as shaking），in this drama，maybe 多投几遍 *means shaking the clothes several times after you washed them*（for avoiding dry clothes get wrinkled）.
> 
> By the way，in Chinese traditional culture，多投几遍（shaking the clothes） is a interesting detail in daily life，it's a great character shows someone is careful and considerate，especially Chinese mothers.





gingerbread-mann said:


> In my opinion, 多投几遍 *means to wash the clothes* for more times. I come from north of China, and I might hear this once or twice?  Maybe this collocate comes from south of China? or i think it is possible to use this in a Chinese novel. This still needs a further research.





Oswinw011 said:


> I don't know its meaning either. You can take it as from a dialect. I guess it's washing.
> Edit: just checked and found it's a dialect from northern China. meaning *to rinse*. The maid needs to rinse the clothes several times.


I grew up in Beijing and I can confirm it means exactly "to rinse (the cloths)".
I think the drama is based on Beijing-style Mandarin.


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## Zhiyi

SuperXW said:


> I grew up in Beijing and I can confirm it means exactly "to rinse (the cloths)".
> I think the drama is based on Beijing-style Mandarin.


哈哈哈好的，yuechu的提问缺少关于这部电视剧的介绍，我就自然联想到了一些川渝的方言电视剧，感谢你的补充😃。


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## dojibear

这个电视剧有名字吗？


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## azhong

SuperXW said:


> I grew up in Beijing and I can confirm it means exactly "to rinse (the cloths)".
> I think the drama is based on Beijing-style Mandarin.


How come does "rinse" relate to "投”(throw) in Beijing Dialect, may I ask?

BTW, I seemingly can't figure out a widely used verb for it in Mandarin, either. We do have one in Taiwanese, however; its pronunciation is something like "tua", somewhat close to "投“. Maybe they are kin?


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## gingerbread-mann

SuperXW said:


> I grew up in Beijing and I can confirm it means exactly "to rinse (the cloths)".
> I think the drama is based on Beijing-style Mandarin.


Agree. I asked my friend who have grew up in Xian,Shannxi(陕西) . He said they have the same use of "投" (tou4). Most of Shannxi dialects belong to the Mandarin area of China. 
I came from Shanxi(山西), and most of us speak Jin dialects(晋语). Therefore, we use "liao4"(I don't know how to write this) instead of "tou"
I am going to ask my roommate who comes from Anhui province about this usage.


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## yuechu

Thank you all for your replies! 😃



dojibear said:


> 这个电视剧有名字吗？


这部电视剧叫"小舍得"


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## gingerbread-mann

gingerbread-mann said:


> Agree. I asked my friend who have grew up in Xian,Shannxi(陕西) . He said they have the same use of "投" (tou4). Most of Shannxi dialects belong to the Mandarin area of China.
> I came from Shanxi(山西), and most of us speak Jin dialects(晋语). Therefore, we use "liao4"(I don't know how to write this) instead of "tou"
> I am going to ask my roommate who comes from Anhui province about this usage.


Updating: I asked my roommate who grew up in Anhui(安徽), and he said they would say qing4(maybe it is "清" ？) or qin. He said he hadn't heard the usage of "投". BTW:His hometown is near the Nanjing, Jiangsu.
If I get any other special answer, I will come back and update this.


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## gingerbread-mann

yuechu said:


> Thank you all for your replies! 😃
> 
> 
> 这部电视剧叫"小舍得"


The playwright of "小舍得" is 鲁引弓. According to his career, I guess that he came from Zhejiang(浙江) Province. Maybe someone from Zhejiang could give us more information about this usage?


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## SuperXW

gingerbread-mann said:


> The playwright of "小舍得" is 鲁引弓. According to his career, I guess that he came from Zhejiang(浙江) Province. Maybe someone from Zhejiang could give us more information about this usage?


不用考虑编剧的籍贯。电视剧的演员台词并不会机械地字字跟着剧本走的，导演和演员会根据自己的语言发挥的。
根据Yuechu之前问的这部剧的问题，全都是北京非常常见的语言。


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## lightheart

yuechu said:


> Thank you all for your replies! 😃
> 
> 
> 这部电视剧叫"小舍得"


Is there more detailed information about the episode where this phrase appears? I'm not a hundred percent sure if the subtitle is correct so watching the part may reveal more about its meaning.


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## yuechu

Sorry, I don't remember anymore. Thanks though!


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## lightheart

I just found where it is!!!

A Love for Dilemma(小舍得) EP02 36:50~36:55

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子悠的衣服一定要手洗。放一点消毒液，放一点点柔顺剂。多酘几遍啊。
Remember to wash Zi You's clothes with your hands. Just put a little bit detergent and fabric softener. Rinse them several times with water.
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Here 酘 is a commonly used word in Chinese dialects. The standard pronunciation is _tou2_, but there are also regional variants like _tou3_ or _tou4_. The word means "to rinse [clothes] in clean water".

Depending on which variant they use, people may write it with simpler characters. For example, in the Northeast of China (including Tianjin, Hebei, Beijing etc.), people pronounce it as _tou2 _(IPA [tʰoʊ35]) and write it as 投. While in Southwestern Mandarin (e.g. dialects in Sichuan or Hubei province), people may pronounce it as _tou4_ (IPA [tʰoʊ213], note that this is different from _tou4 _in Northern Mandarin dialects, but similar to _tou3 _in Northern Mandarin dialects), which is the pronunciation of 透.

Examples:
[1] 这桶衣服已经洗过了，你*酘*下水就拿出去晒着。（People from the North may write "投", while in the South, you may find "透"）
[2] 刚才洗衣液用多了，记得多*酘*几遍*。*

Zhiyi mentioned 抖 in Sichuan dialects, but it actually doesn't fit the context because it means "to shake" instead of "to rinse". Here in Sichuan, 抖 is normally pronounced as _tou3 _(IPA [tʰoʊ53], note that this is different from _tou3 _in Northern Mandarin dialects, but similar to _tou4 _in Northern Mandarin dialects), which is drastically different from the standard _dou3_(IPA [toʊ213]) in 普通话.

Again, the word 酘(tou2) in the sense of "rinsing [clothes] in clean water" is only used in dialects, so you'd better avoid using it in more formal occasions.


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## yuechu

Hi Lightheart,

Oh, I didn't mean for you to watch the whole episode(s) just for that! Next time, you don't have to waste your time watching it just for a language question (unless you like 电视剧 and were going to watch it anyway). Thank you so much!

That's really neat that there is a specific character (酘) for it. You're right that the subtitles didn't give the right one. It's neat to learn a new, rare (often dialect) character every once in a while!

谢谢你啊, Lightheart! 😄


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