名牌 míngpái famous brand
famous brand; nameplate; name tag
How to remember 名牌: 名 name + 牌 card = famous brand.
Characters
How it is used
- Most common sense is a famous/luxury brand: 名牌衣服 (míngpái yīfu) - brand-name clothes, extended figuratively to 名牌大学 (míngpái dàxué) - a prestigious university.
- Less common literal sense: a nameplate or name tag.
- Different from neutral 品牌 (pǐnpái), which just means "brand" regardless of fame - 名牌 specifically implies well-known and often prestigious.