How to Write 咭 (jī) — Meaning “card (transliteration); giggling sound”

Imagine a lucky (吉) person laughing so hard that their mouth (口) makes a constant "hee-hee" sound — that is 咭咭. Another trick: think of a business card (咭片) as a "lucky piece" that you hand out with a smile.

Write the left radical 口 first as a small square, then the right part 吉: top 士 (three strokes) above 口 (three strokes). Keep the left 口 smaller and slightly higher than the bottom 口 of 吉. A common mistake is making the two 口 components the same size; the left 口 should be narrower.

咭 (jī) has a mouth radical on the left and means card or giggling, while 君 (jūn) has a hand component (尹) and means lord or ruler. 吝 (lìn) combines 口 and 文 (culture) and means stingy or miserly — note 吝 uses 文 on top, not 吉. Visually, 咭 on the right has 士 above 口, whereas 吝 has 文 above 口.

咭 is most commonly used in Cantonese-influenced contexts, such as in Hong Kong and Macau, for the transliteration of the English word "card" — for example, 咭片 (business card) and 信用咭 (credit card). In Mandarin, this character appears in onomatopoeic words like 咭咭 (giggling sound) but is relatively rare outside of these specific uses.

Common words containing 咭 include: 咭片 (jī piàn) — business card; 咭咭 (jī jī) — giggling sound; 咭片盒 (jī piàn hé) — card case.