倍 (bèi) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

倍

bèi[bei4]Tone 4

times (multiplier) / double

HSK 4

Guru Deep Dive

English · times (multiplier) / double

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left radical (亻) narrow and compact on the left side, leaving plenty of room for the right component (咅) so the character remains well-balanced and does not lean.

1. Meaning

times (multiplier), -fold increase

doubleto multiply

measure word / suffixNeutralBound morpheme#math#quantity#comparison

Sample Usage

速度比原来快了一倍。
sùdù bǐ yuánlái kuài le yí bèi.
The speed is twice as fast as before.
产量增加了三倍。
chǎnliàng zēngjiā le sān bèi.
The output has increased fourfold (increased by 3 times).

2. Sound

/[peɪ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

倍

bèibei4

`(51)

=bèi

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: b sound in 'boy'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No burst of air. A tissue in front of lips should stay still.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Lips pressed together firmly, then released as air builds up without a strong puff of breath.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: -ay in 'day'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ay'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, similar to saying 'No!' in English with firm finality.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the 4th tone drop with Tone 1 or Tone 3 due to fast conversational speech.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp karate chop downwards, representing the descending pitch of Tone 4.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

4. Components

Radical 亻 · Person Radical (human, person)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 亻 (indicates human involvement or ratio)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 咅 (original sound: pou / bei)

A person (亻) standing next to an increased piling-up measurement (咅), multiplying things to double or triple value.

亻 person
咅 phonetic and auxiliary base meaning partition/increase

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

2· Phonetic Root: 倍 (bèi)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the person radical (亻) and a phonetic component (咅) representing amplification or division.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred to dividing or parting; later extended to mean multiplying, doubling, or folding quantities over.

The concept of 'multiples' evolved naturally from division and proportional scaling in ancient Chinese metrology.

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A single PERSON (亻) stands by a machine that doubles everything it touches, multiplying output values over and over (-fold).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

培

péito cultivate, bank up with earthAdd earth radical (土) on the left for soil cultivation.

剖

pōuto dissect, cut openAdd knife radical (刂) on the right for cutting/slicing.

陪

péito accompanyAdd mound radical (阝) on the left for accompanying someone.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

背(bèi / bēi)

背 uses the flesh/moon radical (月) at the bottom representing the back, whereas 倍 uses the person radical (亻) for multipliers.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这件衣服的价格比那件贵了一[___]。

Clue: bèi

Common Learner Pitfall

Miscalculating Chinese multiplier usage: in Chinese, '增加了一倍' means increased *by* 100%, making it twice as much overall (double), whereas learners often mistakenly add it on top incorrectly.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 倍, what is its core mathematical function and how do you pronounce it with tone?

Production: How do you write the character for multiplier/double (bèi) and what is its left radical?

倍bèitimes (multiplier) / double

Speed:

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