HSK 3 · Function Words

被 bèi “by” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 被 means

  1. by
  2. indicates passive voice
  3. quilt/blanket
  4. quilt
  5. to cover (with)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • used to indicate passive voice (placed before the doer of the action like “by” in English passive-voice sentences, or, if the doer is not mentioned, before the verb)
  • (since c. 2009) (sarcastic or jocular) used to indicate that the following word should be regarded as being in air quotes (as in 被旅游 to “go on a trip”)

How to say 被

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale被bèi4th tone, falling

被 in a sentence

  1. 我们的航班被取消了。

    Wǒmen de hángbān bèi qǔxiāo le.

    Our flight was cancelled.

    Sentence #10199249 from Tatoeba

  2. 那个孩子被老师批评了。

    Nà ge háizi bèi lǎoshī pīpíng le.

    That child was told off by the teacher.

    Sentence #777601 from Tatoeba

  3. 你也被邀请了。

    Nǐ yě bèi yāoqǐng le.

    You’re invited too.

    Sentence #9972929 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 被 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 被 (bèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
被bèiquilt
  • 衤clothes form of 衣 · yīMeaning part
  • 皮skin · píSound part

衤 hints at the meaning (clothes); 皮 (pí) hints at the sound. Compare it with bèi.

How to write 被

被 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 被

Words with 被

被子bèizi · quilt被动bèidòng · passive被告bèigào · defendant

More words: Particles & Connectors

一下yíxià · (after a verb) briefly着zhe · particle for an ongoing action or state (-ing)啊a · ah把bǎ · pretransitive particle比较bǐjiào · compare比赛bǐsài · sports match不但búdàn · not only而且érqiě · moreover

FAQs

被 (bèi) means “by” or “indicates passive voice”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it bèi: bèi with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 被 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type bei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 被 from the suggestions. Typing bei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
被 is an HSK 3 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.