当 dāng / dàng in a sentence
Should (facing - when - act as - equal); Appropriate (assume)
当 (dāng / dàng) means Should (facing - when - act as - equal), Appropriate (assume). Below are 24 of the 118 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
她 当 了三年老师。
Tā dāng le sān nián lǎoshī.
She worked as a teacher for three years.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 当
他小时候想 当 医生。
Tā xiǎo shíhou xiǎng dāng yīshēng.
When he was small he wanted to be a doctor.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 当
这道题相 当 难。
Zhè dào tí xiāngdāng nán.
This question is quite difficult.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 相当
当 时我正在开会。
Dāngshí wǒ zhèngzài kāi huì.
At that time I was in a meeting.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 当时
她在医院 当 护士。
Tā zài yīyuàn dāng hùshi.
She works as a nurse at the hospital.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 护士
将来我想 当 老师。
Jiānglái wǒ xiǎng dāng lǎoshī.
In the future I want to be a teacher.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 将来
当 地人非常热情。
Dāngdì rén fēicháng rèqíng.
The local people are very warm.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 当地
小女孩想 当 公主。
Xiǎo nǚhái xiǎng dāng gōngzhǔ.
The little girl wants to be a princess.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 公主
他给经理 当 助理。
Tā gěi jīnglǐ dāng zhùlǐ.
He works as assistant to the manager.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 助理
当 时的情况很复杂。
Dāngshí de qíngkuàng hěn fùzá.
The situation at the time was complicated.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 当时
他的理想是 当 医生。
Tā de lǐxiǎng shì dāng yīshēng.
His dream is to be a doctor.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 理想
她在商店 当 售货员。
Tā zài shāngdiàn dāng shòuhuòyuán.
She works as a shop assistant.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 售货员
路上滑， 当 心摔倒。
Lù shàng huá, dāngxīn shuāi dǎo.
The road is slippery; watch out you do not fall.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 当心
这是 当 地的老风俗。
Zhè shì dāngdì de lǎo fēngsú.
This is an old local custom.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 风俗
他年轻时 当 过士兵。
Tā niánqīng shí dāng guo shìbīng.
He was a soldier when he was young.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 士兵
小偷被 当 场抓住了。
Xiǎotōu bèi dāngchǎng zhuāzhù le.
The thief was caught red-handed.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 当场
这笔收入相 当 可观。
Zhè bǐ shōurù xiāngdāng kěguān.
This income is quite considerable.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 可观
Reading these is one thing; producing 当 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
我 当 时没有回答。
wǒ dāngshí méiyǒu huídá.
I didn't answer at the time.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · A Decision at Thirty
我 当 时非常生气，直接把她的微信删了。
wǒ dāngshí fēicháng shēngqì, zhíjiē bǎ tā de / dì wēi xìn shān le / liǎo / liào.
I was furious and deleted her from WeChat there and then.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · A Misunderstanding
说实话，我 当 时并不想参加，是室友帮我报的名。
shuō shíhuà, wǒ dāngshí bìngbù xiǎng cānjiā, shì shì yǒu bāng wǒ bào de / dì míng.
To be honest I didn't want to enter; my roommate signed me up.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · My First Speech
当 appears in 118 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 当
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 当
How is 当 used in a sentence?
This page shows 118 sentences using 当 (dāng / dàng, "Should (facing - when - act as - equal), Appropriate (assume)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 当 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 当 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 当 an HSK word?
Yes — 当 is on the official HSK 4 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 4 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 当?
The dictionary page for 当 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 当, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 4 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
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