# 他正在倒咖啡



## macrotis

Are you OK with the dao (倒) character here or would it be 到 (or something else)?

According to Wenlin, the only related meanings I could see are "pour" and "exchange" but the man doesn't seem to be pouring or exchanging coffee. Here are what Wenlin gives:



> 倒 [dǎo] fall down   [dào] backwards; pour; contrary to expectations   [dáo]
> 倒 ³dào v. ①invert; move backward; place upside down ②pour adv. ①back; in reverse order ②actually; contrary to what was said/thought ◆conj. but; still; nevertheless
> 倒 ¹dǎo v. ①fall over; topple ②collapse ③become hoarse ④exchange; move around; shift ⑤〈coll.〉 make money doing business
> 倒 ²dáo b.f. follow up


Thank you.


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## poedogma

Hi, where is your sentence?  

Anyway, I guess you were confused becasue this is a popular slang among young people. Its meaning depends on different situation. It's so widely used just like "cool" in English. ''倒" is just like "暈" to express his feelings of astonishment or impotentness.

Example: 

A: What is the result of 1+1?
B: I have no idea.
A: 倒（晕）...

A：Have you finished your work?
B: Not yet.
A: But the deadline is tomorrow
A: Never mind. It's not important. 
B: 倒（晕）...


Well I guess I'm not that understood.


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## Jerry Chan

It has nothing to do with 暈 here.

The caption does say "he is pouring coffee."
But obviously the picture suggests otherwise.


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## poedogma

Jerry Chan said:


> It has nothing to do with 暈 here.
> 
> The caption does say "he is pouring coffee."
> But obviously the picture suggests otherwise.


 

well because i didn't see any context


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## macrotis

Thank you Jerry. Is there a word for "get" or "take" or "receive" whose pronunciation is similar to "dao?"

*poedogma*: "here" in the first sentence is supposed to be linked. Maybe your browser doesn't render it?


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## Jerry Chan

macrotis said:


> Thank you Jerry. Is there a word for "get" or "take" or "receive" whose pronunciation is similar to "dao?"




Yes, 到 is one  of the most widely used Chinese characters.
The character itself means to 'arrive' or 'get to' somewhere.
If you wanna say 'get something', you'll need a combination, e.g. 得到

Note that 到 and 倒 have the same pronunciation but different tone.
到 - dao4
倒 - dao3


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## bestjames

Hi, after seeing the picture, I think the meaning of "倒" here is "to make money doing business", and "他" (he) here refers to the man on the right (I think he's a man). So this has nothing to do with "get" or "receive" etc.


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## bestjames

It's confusing because the person on the right holding coffees does look like a woman. But if "he" refers to the man on the left, the word "dao" just doesn't make sense here.


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## xiaolijie

I think it could be mistakenly written by a non Chinese-native intended to mean "He's _serving_ coffee."


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## dexterdan

macrotis said:


> Are you OK with the dao (倒) character here or would it be 到 (or something else)?
> 
> According to Wenlin, the only related meanings I could see are "pour" and "exchange" but the man doesn't seem to be pouring or exchanging coffee. Here are what Wenlin gives:
> 
> Thank you.


 hi macrotis,
so from what u say,I think dao means "opposite"?,dui.
dex


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## Staarkali

it might also be a joke of some kind of a black man who spillt coffee over himself (which not only is not funny but is also "slightly" racist).
In any case, I agree with the previous idea that the sentence is not very clear.


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## meowoo

1.the picture doesn't match the caption at all.

2.倒咖啡 is a collocation, a literal translation is " pouring coffee", but most of the time chinese means " making coffee" or " _serving_ coffee."


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