啤酒
beer
píjiǔ
What does 啤酒 mean?
啤酒 (píjiǔ) is the noun for 'beer.' The first character 啤 has no independent meaning — it was created in modern Chinese purely to transliterate the foreign syllable 'pi' from beer/bier, and is paired with 酒 (alcohol) to clarify category. So the word literally means 'pi-alcohol' = beer. This pattern of foreign-loan + category marker is common in Chinese (e.g.
卡车 'car-truck' = truck, 吉他 'ji-ta' for guitar). For learners, the key collocations are with measure words: 一瓶啤酒 (a bottle), 一杯啤酒 (a glass), 一罐啤酒 (a can), 一扎啤酒 (a jug of draft). At restaurants, ordering 来两瓶啤酒 ('two bottles of beer, please') is one of the most useful sentences a beginner can master. Common brands: 青岛啤酒 (Tsingtao), 燕京啤酒 (Yanjing).
Character breakdown
(phonetic transliteration of 'beer'; no independent meaning)
alcoholic drink; liquor
Memory hook: 啤 sounds like 'pee' (beer); pair it with 酒 (alcohol) to remember 'pee-alcohol' = beer.
Measure word for 啤酒
Example sentences
请给我一瓶啤酒。
Qǐng gěi wǒ yì píng píjiǔ.
Please give me a bottle of beer.
spoken
他每天晚上喝一杯啤酒。
Tā měi tiān wǎnshang hē yì bēi píjiǔ.
He drinks a glass of beer every evening.
neutral
冰箱里还有两瓶啤酒。
Bīngxiāng lǐ hái yǒu liǎng píng píjiǔ.
There are still two bottles of beer in the fridge.
spoken
我不喝啤酒，我喝茶。
Wǒ bù hē píjiǔ, wǒ hē chá.
I don't drink beer — I drink tea.
spoken
夏天喝冰啤酒真舒服。
Xiàtiān hē bīng píjiǔ zhēn shūfu.
Drinking cold beer in summer is really nice.
spoken
Common phrases with 啤酒
Synonyms
扎啤 specifically means draft beer (the kind poured from a tap into a jug). 啤酒 is the umbrella term that includes bottled, canned, and draft. Order 扎啤 only when you want it on tap.
Don't confuse 啤酒 with
白酒 is Chinese strong distilled liquor (40-60% ABV, sorghum-based, served at formal banquets). 啤酒 is light, low-ABV beer. Mixing them up at a Chinese dinner is a very costly mistake.
葡萄酒 is wine (grape alcohol). 啤酒 is beer. They share the 酒 ending but the front character tells you the category.