(): coffee, class, grade

() is a Chinese character meaning “coffee.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2309 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. coffee
  2. class
  3. grade

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口加 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounkā fēi(loanword) coffee2

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
kā fēi diàncafé
kā fēi guǎncafé
kā fēi yīncaffeine (loanword)
gā lí(loanword) curry
kā fēi dòucoffee beans
kā fēi húcoffee pot
kā fēi wūcoffee house
kā fēi sècoffee color
gā lí fěncurry powder
dà kāinfluential person
kǎ bù qí nuò kā fēicappuccino coffee
wú kā fēi yīndecaffeinated
měi shì kā fēicaffè americano
tuō kā fēi yīndecaffeinated
kā fēi guǎn rerhua form of 咖啡館|咖啡馆[ka1 fei1 guan3]
40
Total compounds
45
As first character
18
As last character
38
As middle character

appears in 40 compound words: 45 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 38 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

fēi
0.957133,695 co-occurrences
diàn
0.52220,402 co-occurrences
0.4992,929 co-occurrences
dòu
0.4743,318 co-occurrences
guǎn
0.4719,918 co-occurrences
bèi
0.451384 co-occurrences
0.44942 co-occurrences
bēi
0.4382,879 co-occurrences
hōng
0.433486 co-occurrences
nóng
0.4331,169 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

nátiě kāfēiHSK 2+

latte

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā gā zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom reminded me to eat on time and take care of my health.

TvbsFeb 2026

抢攻中间选民!他曝“蓝营3大”出手了:恢复亲美友日路线

qiǎng gōng zhōng jiān xuǎn mín ! tā pù lán yíng 3 dà kā chū shǒu le : huī fù qīn měi yǒu rì lù xiàn

Attack the middle voters! He revealed that the "3 big names in the blue camp" have taken action: to restore the pro-American and friendly Japanese line

EttodayFeb 2026

旅游网红教“饭店啡机洗内裤”炎上 IG回应了

lǚ yóu wǎng hóng jiào fàn diàn kā fēi jī xǐ nèi kù yán shàng I G huí yīng le

Travel Internet celebrities teach "hotel coffee machine washing underwear" on IG responded

It之家Feb 2026

科学家突破超疏水材料热稳定性难题,让热啡、热牛奶不再粘壁

kē xué jiā tū pò chāo shū shuǐ cái liào rè wěn dìng xìng nán tí , ràng rè kā fēi , rè niú nǎi bù zài nián bì

Scientists have broken through the problem of thermal stability of superhydrophobic materials, so that hot coffee and hot milk no longer stick to the wall

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

每天喝啡和茶 失智风险最高降三成

měi tiān hē kā fēi hé chá shī zhì fēng xiǎn zuì gāo jiàng sān chéng

Drinking coffee and tea every day reduces the risk of dementia by up to 30%

東森新聞Feb 2026

独家/疑不满出餐太慢! 复古啡厅男乱泼美式

dú jiā yí bù mǎn chū cān tài màn ! fù gǔ kā fēi tīng nán luàn pō měi shì

Exclusive/Suspected that the food is too slow! Retro café men splash American style

Tatoeba

啡里加了什么呀?

Kāfēi lǐ jiā le shénme ya?

What's in the coffee?

Tatoeba

汤姆对啡因有依赖,是吗?

Tāngmǔ duì kāfēiyīn yǒu yīlài, shì ma?

Tom has a caffeine dependency, doesn't he?

Tatoeba

恐怕啡已经喝完了。

Kǒngpà kāfēi yǐjīng hē wánle.

I'm afraid there isn't any coffee left.

Tatoeba

我不习惯喝无糖啡。

Wǒ bù xíguàn hē wútáng kāfēi.

I'm not used to drinking coffee without sugar.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 咖 (kā) mean in Chinese?
咖 (kā) primarily means "coffee." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #2309 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 咖 and 架?
咖 (kā) and 架 (jià) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 木 (same 加 component).
How many strokes does 咖 have?
咖 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 咖?
The radical associated with 咖 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 咖?
咖 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 加 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口加 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 咖?
Common words with 咖 include: 咖啡 (kā fēi, "(loanword) coffee"); 咖啡店 (kā fēi diàn, "café"); 咖啡馆 (kā fēi guǎn, "café"); 咖啡因 (kā fēi yīn, "caffeine (loanword)"); 咖喱 (gā lí, "(loanword) curry"). There are over 40 compound words containing this character.
Is 咖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 咖 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.