The 非 family
非 · fēi · ㄈㄟ — not
Know 非 and the readings of 6 more characters follow: 菲、啡、輩、悲、匪、緋. In traditional Chinese, most characters carry a sound component — a phonetic — and learning the phonetic once lights up its whole family. This page is that family, drawn live from the map.
The characters
One sound, many meanings: the 部首 beside each character is the other half of the pair, the part that tells them apart.
- 菲fēi · ㄈㄟ部首 艸 · grassluxuriant (plant growth); rich with fragrance89%
- 啡fēi · ㄈㄟ部首 口 · mouth(used in loanwords for its phonetic value)89%
- 輩bèi · ㄅㄟˋ部首 車 · carlifetime; generation67%
- 悲bēi · ㄅㄟ部首 心 · heartsad; sadness67%
- 匪fěi · ㄈㄟˇ部首 匚 · "right open box" radical (Kangxi radical 22), occurring in 区, 医, 匹 etcbandit; (literary) not80%
- 緋fēi · ㄈㄟ部首 糹 絞絲旁 · fine silkdark red; purple silk89%
The percentage is our computed confidence that 非 really signals that character’s sound — scored from how closely the readings agree and how reliably 非 predicts the sound of every character built on it. Mean for this family: 80%.
Words this family builds
- 非常
- 咖啡
- 除非
- 一輩子
- 並非
- 悲傷
- 非洲
- 非法
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