被 (bèi) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

被

bèi[bei4]Tone 4

quilt, to cover, passive voice marker

HSK 3

Guru Deep Dive

English · quilt, to cover, passive voice marker

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left garment radical (衤) should be compressed slightly to make room for the right phonetic component 皮, maintaining equal visual weight.

1. Meaning

quilt, bedding

to cover or spread overto sustain or suffer (a misfortune, literary)grammatical marker for the passive voiceslang: forced or coerced into an action (e.g. 'being' made to do something)

Noun / Verb / Preposition / Grammatical MarkerNeutral / Literary / Internet Slang#household items#grammar#abstract action

Sample Usage

天气冷了，多盖一条被子。
tiān qì lěng le, duō gài yī tiáo bèi zi.
The weather is cold, cover yourself with one more quilt.
我的手机被偷了。
wǒ de shǒu jī bèi tōu le.
My mobile phone was stolen.

2. Sound

/[peɪ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

被

bèibei4

`(51)

=bèi

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Bilabial

Sounds like: b sound as in English 'bed'

Unaspirated

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

Tongue & Mouth Position: Both lips press together gently and release with a light burst of voice, without blowing air.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: -ei rhymes with '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 plunges instantly, identical to an abrupt, authoritative command in English like 'No!' or 'Stop!'.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the 4th tone bèi with the 1st tone bēi (bān) or 3rd tone běi due to English speakers ignoring Mandarin tone contours.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Chop your hand downward sharply from eye level to chest level, matching the abrupt drop of Tone 4.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left garment radical (衤) should be compressed slightly to make room for the right phonetic component 皮, maintaining equal visual weight.

4. Components

Radical 衤 · clothing radical (clothing, garments, textiles)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 衤 (indicates textiles, bedding, and garments)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 皮 (original sound: pi / bei)

A quilt or bed covering (被) is made of a clothing/fabric base (衤) layered over skin or hide (皮) to keep you warm.

衤 clothing or fabric semantic root
皮 skin, leather, or phonetic clue

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

15· Phonetic Root: 皮 (pí)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally written with the clothing radical and 皮 (skin/hide), anciently referring to coverlets or bedclothes made of animal skins or padded fabrics.

Semantic Evolution: From physical bedding used to 'cover' a person, it extended to mean 'to cover', then metaphorically to 'suffer' (as in having misfortune cast over one), and finally as a grammatical marker for the passive voice where the subject is 'covered' or acted upon by the verb.

In modern internet culture, 被 has evolved into a passive prefix meaning 'to be forced into' (e.g., 被自愿 'to be forced to volunteer').

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You pull a heavy fabric quilt (衤) up over your skin and hide (皮) on a cold night, wrapping yourself up completely.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

被

bèiquilt / passive markerBase character with clothing radical

坡

pōslopeUses earth radical (土) instead of clothing

波

bōwaveUses water radical (氵) instead of clothing

疲

pítiredUses illness radical (疒) instead of clothing

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

背(bèi)

背 has the flesh/moon radical (月) at the bottom, meaning back or to carry, whereas 被 has the clothing radical (衤) on the left for quilts.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我的钱包 [___] 偷了。

Clue: bèi

Common Learner Pitfall

Using 被 for all passive sentences in Chinese even when there is no negative connotation, or placing the doer after the verb instead of right after 被.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 被, what are its three most common grammatical and lexical functions?

Production: How do you write the character for quilt / passive voice marker (bèi) and what is its radical?

被bèiquilt, to cover, passive voice marker

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