péi
verb HSK 5 #988

Meanings

  1. 1 to accompany; to keep (someone) company
  2. 2 to go with; to be with

Examples

Nǐ néng péi wǒqù yīyuàn ma?
Can you accompany me to the hospital?
Māma měitiān péi háizi xiězuò yè.
Mom keeps the child company while doing homework every day.
Xièxie nǐ péi le wǒ yīzhěngtiān.
Thank you for spending the whole day with me.
Tā jīngcháng péi nǚpéngyou guàngjiē.
He often accompanies his girlfriend shopping.
Wǒlái péinǐ liáoliáo tiān ba.
Let me keep you company and chat for a while.

Tips

grammar
takes a person as its object: + person + verb. 吃饭 = accompany you to eat. 电影 = go with him to watch a movie.
usage
陪伴 = to accompany (more formal/literary). = to keep company (formal). 陪同 = to escort/accompany (official). 陪嫁 = dowry.

Components

radical
mound; hill (left-side radical form of 阜)
Left is the left-side mound radical, the abbreviated form of . It indexes terrain, settlements, and the act of being-alongside (the original sense was earthen hills people gathered against). Same family: courtyard, formation, steep, step. In it pictures the embankment one walks beside - physical accompaniment turned social.
phonetic
pǒu
spit out (here phonetic)
Right supplies the sound - pǒu shifting to péi via well-attested labial drift. The same phonetic spawns to cultivate, double, section, to compensate, all sharing the péi/bèi/bù rhyme cluster. Pure phonetic loan; the original "spitting" sense of contributes nothing to "accompany".

Stroke Order

péi