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学年 (xué nián) — academic year

Definition

学年 is the full academic year as a whole — typically split into two 学期 (semesters). 学期 refers to one of those halves; 年级 is your grade level, not a time period.

noun
academic year

Examples

  • 学年。
    Wǒ men xué xiào de xué nián cóng jiǔ yuè kāi shǐ.
    Our school's academic year starts in September.
  • 学年。
    Zhè ge xué nián yí gòng yǒu liǎng gè xué qī.
    This academic year has two semesters in total.
  • 学年。
    Wǒ xī wàng zhè ge xué nián néng xué dào hěn duō xīn zhī shi.
    I hope to learn a lot of new knowledge this academic year.

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.

学xuéstudy
年niányear

学 (study) and 年 (year) form the year of study.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 學; 学 is its simplified writing.

The traditional form 學 may have used 爻 and 六 for sound, with hands and a child added later; the simplified 学 is a shorthand.

Open 学 →

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 5School & Education

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