The word 夫妻 is formed by directly combining the two characters 夫 (fū), meaning "husband", and 妻 (qī), meaning "wife". It is a simple, complementary pairing where each character represents one essential half of the marital relationship. By placing them side-by-side, the word visually and conceptually creates a single unit representing the married couple as a whole, embodying the fundamental union at the core of a family.