前夜 (qián yè) — eve (the night before a significant event); nig…

Definition

Literary 'eve' — the night before a major event (a wedding, revolution, war). For 'the night before yesterday' use 昨天晚上 instead.

noun

eve (the night before a significant event)night before last (the night before yesterday)

前夜，。
Zài hūn lǐ qián yè, tā jǐn zhāng dé shuì bù zháo.
On the eve of the wedding, she was too nervous to sleep.
前夜。
qián yè Wǒ men chī de shì huǒ guō.
The night before last we ate hotpot.
前夜，。
Gé mìng qián yè, zhěng gè chéng shì dōu lǒng zhào zài jǐn zhāng qì fen zhōng.
On the eve of the revolution, the entire city was shrouded in tension.

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.

前 means 'before' and 夜 means 'night', so together they mean the night before.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

In the older form of 前, 止 (foot) and 舟 (boat) showed a foot on a boat moving forward; in the current 前 those parts are shortened.

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

夕夕xīmoon

Sound part声符shēngfú

亦

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The form 夜 pairs 亦 as a sound part with 夕 as a moon part, for night. In the modern shape, the 亦 part is broken up and one stroke merges into 夕.

Appears in