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早年 (zǎo nián) — (noun) early years of one's life; youth and young adulthood; (time noun, adverbial) long ago, many years ago (in relation to one's own history)

Definition

早年 refers specifically to one's own early years or youth, contrasted with the past in general. Unlike 以前 (which works for any time before now), 早年 implies the speaker's younger days or a place's earlier state long ago.

noun
early years of one's lifeyouth and young adulthood(time noun, adverbial) long agomany years ago (in relation to one's own history)

Examples

  • 早年，。
    Tā zǎo nián zài xiāng xia zhǎng dà, hòu lái bān dào le chéng shì.
    He grew up in the countryside in his early years, and later moved to the city.
  • 早年，。
    zǎo nián Zhè lǐ hái hěn huāng liáng, xiàn zài biàn chéng shāng yè qū le.
    Many years ago this place was still very barren; now it has become a business district.
  • 早年？
    Nǐ zǎo nián de jīng lì duì nǐ hòu lái de rén shēng yǐng xiǎng hěn dà ba?
    Your early experiences must have had a big influence on your later life, right?

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
年niányear

早 means early, and 年 means years, giving the sense of early years or long ago.

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 →

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
禾禾héwheat; grain
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén年nián
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

年 pairs 禾 (grain) with 人, which gives the sound. Its original meaning was harvest, and it later came to mean a year.

Open 年 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 7-9Life Stages & AgeTime (Abstract)

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.