堵车 dǔchē traffic jam
How to remember 堵车: 堵 wall + 车 car = traffic jam.
Characters
How it is used
- A separable verb-object phrase - 今天堵车堵得很厉害 (jīntiān dǔchē dǔ de hěn lìhai) traffic is really bad today; also used as a noun, 堵车很严重 the traffic jam is serious.
- 堵 alone means "to block/clog", also seen in 堵住 (dǔzhù) to block up.
- Extremely common in spoken Chinese about commuting and city life; near-synonym 塞车 (sāichē) is more common in southern China/Cantonese-influenced Mandarin.
Example sentences
- 高速公路上堵车了。 Gāosù gōnglù shàng dǔchē le.There's a traffic jam on the highway.
- 因为堵车， 我开会迟到了。 Yīnwèi dǔchē, wǒ kāihuì chídào le.Because there was traffic, I was late to the meeting.