TongTong
Sign in

老早 (lǎo zǎo) — very early; long ago

Definition

A colloquial adverb meaning 'long ago' or 'way back' — emphasizes how early something happened, more informal than 很早就 (very early). Often paired with 就 to stress earliness.

adverb
very earlylong ago

Examples

  • 老早。
    Tā lǎo zǎo jiù lái le.
    He came very early.
  • 老早。
    Wǒ lǎo zǎo yǐ qián jiù zhī dào zhè jiàn shì.
    I knew about this long ago.
  • 老早。
    Tā men lǎo zǎo chū fā le.
    They set off very early.

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.

老lǎovery
早zǎoearly

老 gives the sense of 'very' and 早 gives 'early', so 老早 expresses 'very early' or 'long ago'.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 老 combines 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (cane), showing a man with long hair leaning on a cane.

Open 老 →

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 →
Appears in
Time (Abstract)

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