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咖啡屋 (kā fēi wū) — café, coffee house

Definition

noun
cafécoffee house
Measure word · 家

Examples

  • 咖啡屋。
    Wǒ men qù nà jiā xīn kāi de kā fēi wū zuò zuò ba.
    Let's go sit at that newly opened café.
  • 咖啡屋。
    Zhè jiā kā fēi wū de kā fēi wèi dào hěn bú cuò.
    The coffee at this café tastes really good.
  • 咖啡屋。
    Tā zài kā fēi wū lǐ xiě wán le tā de xiǎo shuō.
    He finished writing his novel in the café.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

咖啡coffee
咖kā啡fēi
音译Transliteration
屋wūhouse

咖啡 names coffee and 屋 names a room or shop, so the whole means a coffee shop.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
加
加jiā咖gā
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part is 口, showing a mouth, and the right part is 加, which gives the sound jiā.

Open 咖 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
非
非fēi啡
Same sound today

啡 combines 口 (mouth) with 非, which supplies the sound.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
室室shìroom
Sound part声符shēngfú
𡉉
𡉉𡉉屋wū
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

屋 comes from 室, meaning room, with 𡉉 for sound; its upper part later changed into an unrelated shape.

Open 屋 →
Appears in
Dining & Restaurants

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