Where 今 comes from
A mouth 亼 talking about things
How to write 今 (jīn, “now”)
今 (jīn), an HSK 1 character, means “now”, “the present time” and “current”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. Dictionaries list it under the radical 人 (“person”). Among the HSK words it appears in 今天 (“today”), 今年 (“this year”) and 今后 (“hereafter”). Japanese reads it kon, “now”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.
- Pinyin
- jīn
- Strokes
- 4
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 人 (“person”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
- Right-falling stroke ㇏topdown and right → rightwards
- Horizontal ㇐centerdown and right
- Horizontal then left-falling ㇇leftrightwards → down and left
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 4 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| jīn first tone | now; the present time; current; contemporary; this (day, year etc) | — | 今天 今年 今后 今日 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 1 word
- Words with it
- 55 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 今
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 今天 | jīntiān | today; the present time HSK 1 |
| 今年 | jīnnián | this year HSK 1 |
| 今后 今後 | jīnhòu | hereafter; henceforth HSK 4 |
| 今日 | jīnrì | today HSK 5 |
| 如今 | rújīn | nowadays; now HSK 5 |
| 至今 | zhìjīn | so far; to this day HSK 5 |
| 当今 當今 | dāngjīn | the present time; His Majesty HSK 6 |
| 古今中外 | gǔjīn-zhōngwài | at all times and in all places (idiom) HSK 7-9 |
| 迄今 | qìjīn | so far; to date HSK 7-9 |
| 今人 | jīnrén | modern people |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 1, in list order: