朋友 péngyou — friend

Meanings

1. 1

   friend

   A friend, of either gender. 好朋友 is a close friend; 朋友 on its own carries no romantic meaning, unlike the compounds 男朋友 and 女朋友.

   noun

Character breakdown

• 朋

  péng (second tone, rising)

  friend, companion (chiefly in 朋友); of the same kind, matched

  8 strokes⿰月月Radical 月
• 友

  yǒu (third tone, dipping)

  friend; friendly, amicable

  4 strokes⿸𠂇又Radical 又

Example sentences

• 他是我的好朋友。Tā (first tone, high and level) shì (fourth tone, falling) wǒ (third tone, dipping) de (neutral tone) hǎo (third tone, dipping) péngyou. (second tone, rising)···

  He’s a close friend of mine.

• 我在中国有很多朋友。/我在中國有很多朋友。Wǒ (third tone, dipping) zài (fourth tone, falling) Zhōngguó (first tone, high and level) yǒu (third tone, dipping) hěn (third tone, dipping) duō (first tone, high and level) péngyou. (second tone, rising)···

  I have a lot of friends in China.

Common mistakes

• Not quitepéng yǒu

  Correctpéng you

  The second syllable of 朋友 is unstressed and neutral in ordinary speech; a full third tone there sounds like reading from a word list.

Similar words