bei

See also: Bei, bèi, Bèi, bēi, běi, bei-, be'i, and bé-í

Languages (25)

Translingual

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Äiwoo • Ajië • Bauro • Catalan • Central Franconian • Dutch • Esperanto • Faroese • German • Iberian • Italian • Iu Mien • Japanese • Lithuanian • Luxembourgish • Mandarin • Merei • Pennsylvania German • Portuguese • Romanian • Roro • Swahili • Volapük • Welsh

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English Bekatiʼ.

Symbol

bei

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Bekati'.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Bekati' terms

Äiwoo

Adjective

bei

1. sick, ill

References

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007), “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Ajië

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ᵐbei]

Verb

bei

1. to fall

References

• Leenhardt, M. (1935), Vocabulaire et grammaire de la langue Houaïlou, Paris: Institut d'ethnologie. Cited in: "Houaïlou" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.
• Leenhardt, M. (1946), Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mèlanèsie. Cited in: "Ajiø" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Bauro

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *bei.

Noun

bei

1. water

References

• Sidney Herbert Ray, A Comparative Study of the Melanesian Island Languages (1926), page 481: Bauro bei "water"

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈbɛj]

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Turkish bey.

Noun

bei m (plural beis)

1. bey

Derived terms

• beilical

Further reading

• “bei”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Etymology 2

Noun

bei m (plural beis)

1. (mineralogy) lode

Central Franconian

Etymology

From Old High German bī.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bei̯/ (Ripuarian)
• IPA^(key): /bɛi̯/, /bʌi̯/ (Moselle Franconian)

Preposition

bei (+ dative or accusative)

1. (most dialects) at; with; by; near; (close) to

   Jank bei der Wage on waat do op mich!

   Go to the car and wait there for me!

Derived terms

• derbei
• beim, bem (contraction with the masculine and neuter dative of the definite article)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛi̯/
• Hyphenation: bei
• Rhymes: -ɛi̯
• Homophone: bij

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch baye, a borrowing from Old French baie, baia, from Latin bāca.

Noun

bei f (plural beien, diminutive beitje n)

1. (obsolete, dialectal, except in compounds) berry

   Synonyms: bes, bezie

Derived terms

• aambei
• aardbei
• moerbei

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Turkish bey.

Noun

bei m (plural beien or beis, no diminutive)

1. (historical) bey, beg (historical Turkish official)

Alternative forms

• beg

Esperanto

Etymology

From be (“baa”) +‎ -i (infinitive verb suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbei/
• Rhymes: -ei
• Hyphenation: be‧i

Verb

bei (present beas, past beis, future beos, conditional beus, volitive beu)

1. to make the characteristic cry of a sheep; to baa

Conjugation

Conjugation of bei

		present		past		future
		singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
tense		beas		beis		beos
active participle		beanta	beantaj	beinta	beintaj	beonta	beontaj
	acc.	beantan	beantajn	beintan	beintajn	beontan	beontajn
nominal active participle		beanto	beantoj	beinto	beintoj	beonto	beontoj
	acc.	beanton	beantojn	beinton	beintojn	beonton	beontojn
adverbial active participle		beante		beinte		beonte
		infinitive	bei	imperative	beu	conditional	beus

Faroese

Etymology

From English bye.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /paiːj/
• Rhymes: -aiːj

Interjection

bei

1. bye, goodbye

German

Alternative forms

• bey (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German bī, from Old High German bī, from Proto-West Germanic *bī, from Proto-Germanic *bi. More at by.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baɪ̯/
• Rhymes: -aɪ̯

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Preposition

bei [with dative]

1. (locative) by, near

   die Bank bei der Kirche ― the bench/bank by the church

   die Bäckerei beim Bahnhof ― the bakery near the train station

2. (with a person, family, shop) at

   Ich schlafe bei Peter. ― I’m sleeping at Peter’s [place].

   Ich bin beim Metzger. ― I'm at the butcher’s.

3. (with an organization or company) for, at, in

   bei der Firma arbeiten ― to work for the firm

   das Arbeitsklima bei Schmidt & Co.

   the working atmosphere at Schmidt & Co.

4. (formal, reflexive) with, on

   Er hat es nicht bei sich. ― He doesn’t have it on him.

   → for which usually: Er hat es nicht dabei.

5. (with an event considered certain) upon, at the time of

   bei Abfahrt des Zuges ― upon departure of the train

6. (with an event considered theoretical) in case of, in the event of

   bei Hochwasser ― in case of flooding

7. (with a continuing activity or condition) during; while; during the existence of

   bei der Arbeit ― during work

   beim Lesen des Textes ― while reading the text

   bei Schnee ― when there is snow

8. (with an item that implies an activity) over; during

   bei einem Glas Wein ― over a glass of wine (that is, while drinking it)

   bei einem Film ― during a film (that is, while watching it)

9. (dated, in a postal address) care of; via

   Frau Tina Müller bei Firma Schmidt & Co. ― Mrs Tina Müller, care of Schmidt & Co.

10. (now dialectal, nonstandard, northern and central Germany) with, to, towards [with accusative]

    Leg dat bei die andern Sachen! ― Put that with the other things!

    Komm ma bei mich! ― Come to me!

Usage notes

• When bei is followed by the definite article dem (“the”), the two words contract to beim. However, when dem is a demonstrative pronoun, no contraction occurs. Compare:

Der Baum steht zu nah beim Haus. – “The tree is too close to the house.”

Der Baum steht zu nah bei dem Haus da hinten. – “The tree is too close to that house over there.”

• (with, to, towards): In many dialects, and historically in literary style, bei could express movement, requiring then the accusative case. This is in conflict with modern standard rules, for which reason this use of the preposition is becoming rare. In adverbial constructions, however, bei and dabei expressing movement are still fairly common in regional speech: Kommt noch was dabei? (“Do you want anything else with that?”) Sie können Sie sich hier ruhig beisetzen. (“You may come sit here with us.”) The standard language proper normally uses dazu in such cases, but it does feature some relicts in compounds such as herbei, beiseite, beilegen, beitreten, etc. Compare also the idiom Butter bei die Fische. Compare further Dutch bij for which all such constructions are perfectly standard.

Inflection

Pronominal adverbs of bei

preposition	bei
+ wo-	wobei
+ da-	dabei
+ hier-	hierbei

Derived terms

• bei-
• (bei + dem) beim

Related terms

• nebenbei

Further reading

• “bei” in Duden online
• “bei” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Iberian

Etymology

Possibly compare Basque behe (“low, inferior”)

Adjective

bei

1. small

Derived terms

• beidor (“child”)

References

• Villamor, Fernando (2020) A basic dictionary and grammar of the Iberian language