HSK 5 · Function Words

非 fēi “to not be” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 非 means

  1. to not be
  2. not
  3. wrong
  4. incorrect
  5. non-
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • un-
  • in-
  • de-
  • to reproach
  • to blame
  • (coll.) to insist on

How to say 非

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale非fēi1st tone, high and level

非 in a sentence

  1. 非常时期需要非常措施。

    Fēicháng shíqī xūyào fēicháng cuòshī.

    Desperate times call for desperate measures.

    Sentence #4547227 from Tatoeba

How 非 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 非 (fēi) drawn as one shape
非fēito not be; not

非 is a single shape of 8 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 非

非 8 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

非 (fēi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 非 (fēi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 非

Words with 非

非常fēicháng · extremely除非chúfēi · only if (…非法fēifǎ · illegal是非shìfēi · right and wrong并非bìngfēi · to not be无非wúfēi · nothing but

More words: Function Words & Grammar

反而fǎn'ér · on the contrary反复fǎnfù · repeatedly反正fǎnzhèng · anyway仿佛fǎngfú · as if纷纷fēnfēn · one after another幅fú · measure word for paintings赶紧gǎnjǐn · hurriedly赶快gǎnkuài · quickly

FAQs

非 (fēi) means “to not be” or “not”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it fēi: fēi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 非 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type fei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 非 from the suggestions. Typing fei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
非 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.