去年 (qù nián) — last year | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

去年 means 'last year' — the year before the current one. 去年 / 今年 / 明年 / 前年 / 后年 form a tidy time line centered on the current year.

noun

last year

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.

去年 combines 去 past and 年 year to mean the year before this one.

Characters in this word

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

去 pairs 大, a man, with 口, a mouth or object. The evidence reads this as a man leaving a place, a man opening his mouth, or a cover over an object.

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.

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