The Chinese word 温哥华 (Wēngēhuá) is a phonetic transliteration of the English city name "Vancouver," formed through a common process in Mandarin where foreign proper nouns are represented by characters whose pronunciations approximate the original sounds. The characters were chosen not for their literal meanings ("温" means warm, "哥" means older brother, and "华" can mean magnificent or China) but primarily for their phonetic similarity to the syllables "Van," "cou," and "ver," while also conventionally using characters that carry neutral or positive connotations to create a culturally acceptable name. This results in a fixed, recognizable term that sounds familiar to Chinese speakers while conforming to the syllable-based structure of the language.