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早已 (zǎo yǐ) — long since; for a long time (already done before a certain before a reference time)

Definition

早已 emphasizes that something happened 'long since / a long time ago,' with a stronger sense of remoteness than 已经 ('already'). It frames the action as completed well before now.

adverb
long sincefor a long time (already done before a certain before a reference time)

Examples

  • 早已。
    Tā zǎo yǐ bǎ fàn chī le.
    He had already eaten long ago.
  • 早已。
    Wǒ zǎo yǐ zhī dào dá àn le.
    I had known the answer long ago.
  • 早已。
    Wǒ men zǎo yǐ zhǔn bèi hǎo le suǒ yǒu dōng xī.
    We had prepared everything long ago.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

早zǎoearly
已yǐalready

早 means early and 已 means already, so the pair says long since.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
日日rìsun
Sound part声符shēngfú
棗
棗zǎo早zǎo
Same sound today

The form 早 pairs 日 (sun) with 棗, which gives the sound; an earlier shape of 早 was a picture of an acorn.

Open 早 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 已 may originally have been a drawing of either a snake or a fetus.

Open 已 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 5Time (Abstract)

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