Kilo Lingo

(mèi mei) - younger sister in Mandarin

mèimei

Traditional: 妹妹

Line drawing of 妹妹
Coloured illustration of 妹妹
HSK 2
#827 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

younger sister

Word origin

妹妹 (mèimei) 'younger sister' reduplicates 妹, a phono-semantic compound of the 女 (woman) radical plus 未 (wèi) as phonetic. 未 also carries a sense of 'not yet', fitting a younger, junior sibling.

Origin
compound
Root
妹 (女 woman + 未 wèi phonetic), reduplicated

Stroke order

Stroke order for 妹

Stroke order for 妹

Examples

I have a younger sister.

My younger sister is five years younger than me.

My younger sister is in university.

My younger sister is eight this year.

My younger sister likes drawing.

妹妹 (mèi mei) means younger sister. It is used as a noun in everyday Mandarin speech.

Used in

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This word is part of lesson 17.