冒名顶替
mào míng dǐng tì
to take someone’s place under his or her name; to impersonate
Character by character
冒mào
falsely use
falsely use
名míng
name
name
顶dǐng
stand in
stand in
替tì
replace
replace
Example
2020年，山东一名女子发现，十六年前有人冒名顶替，上了本该属于她的大学。
In 2020 a woman in Shandong discovered that sixteen years earlier someone had used her name to take the university place that should have been hers.
Tone: negative (criticism).
Usage and origin
冒名 is to use another’s name, 顶替 to take their place. A news and legal word for identity fraud: 冒名顶替上大学, 冒名顶替领工资. Compare 冒充 (lesson 3-18), to pose as a kind of person, such as a police officer; 冒名顶替 takes over one particular person’s identity.
Learn this in Lesson 196 · HSK 7–9: 个人信息保护 (Protecting personal information)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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