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咖啡豆 (kā fēi dòu) — coffee bean

Definition

noun
coffee bean
Measure word · 颗

Examples

  • 咖啡豆。
    Zhè xiē kā fēi dòu shì lái zì gē lún bǐ yà de.
    These coffee beans are from Colombia.
  • 咖啡豆。
    Tā mǎi le yí dài kā fēi dòu zhǔn bèi zì jǐ mó kā fēi.
    She bought a bag of coffee beans to grind her own coffee.
  • 咖啡豆。
    Hōng bèi kā fēi dòu de shí hou yào zhù yì huǒ hou.
    When roasting coffee beans, you need to pay attention to the heat.

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
豆dòubean

咖啡 names coffee and 豆 is a bean, so 咖啡豆 is a coffee bean.

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.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

豆 originally drew some kind of container. It was borrowed for its sound to write the plant name, so the picture and the meaning are unrelated.

Open 豆 →
Appears in
Beverages

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