咖 meaning and stroke order
Coffee; used in transliterations
How to write 咖, stroke by stroke
8 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 咖
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- (bound form) coffee; café (abbr. for 咖啡[ka1 fei1])
- (Tw) (bound form) type of person (esp. in entertainment contexts) (loanword from "cast") (as in 大咖[da4 ka1] and 怪咖[guai4 ka1])
- used in 咖喱[ga1 li2]
How 咖 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Mouth.
口 gives the meaning and 加 hints at the sound.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 咖
咖 is 口 (mouth) plus 加 (jiā, add). Picture adding something to your mouth each morning: a cup of coffee. 加 also hints at the sound, since jiā is close to kā and gā.
咖 almost never appears alone. It mostly shows up in loanwords like 咖啡 (kāfēi, coffee) and 咖喱 (gālí, curry). Example: 我想喝一杯咖啡。(Wǒ xiǎng hē yì bēi kāfēi.) I want to drink a cup of coffee.
Common mistake: Learners often read 咖喱 as kālí, but in mainland Mandarin it is gālí, with the same character pronounced gā. Also do not confuse 咖 with 加 (jiā) or 架 (jià); 咖 always has the 口 on the left.
Common words with 咖
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 咖啡 | kāfēi | (loanword) coffee | HSK 3 |
| 咖啡馆 | kāfēiguǎn | café; coffee shop | |
| 咖啡店 | kāfēidiàn | café; coffee shop | |
| 咖喱 | gālí | (loanword) curry | |
| 咖啡厅 | kāfēitīng | coffee shop | |
| 咖啡因 | kāfēiyīn | caffeine (loanword) | |
| 咖哩 | kālǐ | (Tw) (loanword) curry; colloquial pr. [ga1li3] or [ga1li2] | |
| 咖啡机 | kāfēijī | coffee machine; coffee maker | |
| 咖啡豆 | kāfēidòu | coffee beans | |
| 咖啡壶 | kāfēihú | coffee pot; coffee maker |
咖 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 咖
How many strokes are in 咖?
咖 is written with 8 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 咖 mean?
咖 (kā) means coffee; used in transliterations. A common word with it is 咖啡 (kāfēi), meaning "(loanword) coffee".
How do you pronounce 咖?
咖 is pronounced kā, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 咖?
The radical of 咖 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 咖 under this radical.
Is 咖 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 咖 is part of the HSK 3 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does 大咖 mean?
大咖 (dàkā) is slang for a big name or an important figure, especially in entertainment or a particular field. It started in Taiwan and is now common on the mainland too. The related word 怪咖 (guàikā) means an odd or eccentric person.
Why do so many characters in 咖啡 have a 口 on the left?
Both 咖 and 啡 were created to write the sound of a foreign word, and the 口 component marks them as sound-based characters. You will see 口 in many transliteration characters, such as 啤 in 啤酒 (píjiǔ, beer).