wei

«wei» in Mova's school dictionary: what people say when they answer the phone in Chinese… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

interjection and word (Mandarin, pinyin «wei» — not an English word); also a Chinese name

meaning for a pupil

1) (Mandarin, pinyin) «Wei» (喂) is what people say when they answer the phone in Chinese, like «hello?»; it sounds like «way». tree →

2) (Mandarin, pinyin) «Wei» is part of many other Chinese words, for example «wèi» (为) «for», «wèi» (位) a polite counting word for people, and «wèi» (胃) «stomach». tree →

3) (a name) Wei is a common Chinese surname and given name, and the name of old Chinese kingdoms. tree →

sense in the lessons

In lessons on Mandarin heard on the street, «wei?» is the phone greeting you might hear. In history, the Wei were kingdoms in ancient China. It is not an English word; in English texts it is usually a person's name.

examples

• «Wei? Ni hao!» — that is how he answered the phone. tree →
• «Wei» sounds like the English word «way». tree →
• My friend Wei comes from Beijing. tree →
• Mr Wei teaches us Mandarin. tree →
• In Chinese, «wei» has different meanings for different tones. tree →
• The kingdom of Wei was in ancient China. tree →

note

Mandarin in pinyin letters, not English. Pinyin has tones; without the tone mark the meaning is unclear. Names: write Wei with a capital W. Do not confuse with English «way» or «weigh», which sound the same.

In the corpora

• Wei says no, politely.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «wei» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.