bat6 ho4拔河
Jyutpingbat6 ho4
Yalebaht hòh
Definition
To play tug-of-war.
neutralsports
How it's used
While 拔河 is the standard term used in formal settings like school sports days or news reports, it is less common in casual daily speech. Most native speakers prefer the more vivid and colloquial term 扯大纜 when describing the activity in a relaxed context. Using 拔河 sounds slightly more academic or structured, similar to how one might refer to a formal event.
Examples
We have to go to school to play tug-of-war this afternoon.
Have you ever participated in a tug-of-war competition before?
Related words
Common mistake
Learners often mistakenly use 拔河 as a noun for the rope itself, but it strictly refers to the action of pulling. If you want to talk about the rope used in the game, you must specify it as 拔河繩.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- QuestionsFrom yes or no questions to asking who, what, where, and when. The patterns you need to ask questions naturally in Cantonese.
- ClassifiersCantonese puts a classifier between a number and a noun, and a bare classifier on its own can mean the. Learn the common ones and how to use them.
- ComparisonsHow to say bigger than, the most, the same as, and not as good as. Cantonese uses 過 where Mandarin uses 比, and that catches a lot of learners out.
