fēi
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (phonetic component in 咖啡 coffee)

Examples

Wǒ měitiān hē kāfēi.
I drink coffee every day.
Kāfēi jiā táng háishi jiā nǎi?
Coffee with sugar or milk?

Tips

usage
is only used in the word 咖啡 (kāfēi, coffee). Like , it has no independent meaning — the radical marks it as a phonetic character. Together, 咖啡 is a sound-based transliteration of the English word 'coffee.'

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Left mouth radical — the indexing radical. Marks as a sound-transcription character: the signals 'this character represents a syllable in a borrowed word.' Created specifically for the transcription 咖啡 'coffee,' similar to (kā) pairing on the left.
phonetic
fēi
not; wrong (here phonetic)
Right supplies the sound fēi (exact match). Chosen purely for the syllable to render the second half of 咖啡 (coffee, from the Arabic qahwa via European routes). Same phonetic family: , arrange, row, sad, generation. The 'wrong/not' meaning of plays no role here.

Stroke Order

fēi