Where 天 comes from
The heavens 一 above a man 大
How to write 天 (tiān, “day”)
天 (tiān), an HSK 1 character, means “day”, “sky” and “heaven”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. On its own it is an HSK 1 word; it also forms 今天 (“today”), 天气 (“weather”) and 明天 (“tomorrow”). Japanese reads it ten, “heavens”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.
- Pinyin
- tiān
- Strokes
- 4
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 大 (“big”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
As a top-bottom character it splits into 一 (“one”), stroke 1; 大 (“big”, the radical), strokes 2–4, written the top first.
- Horizontal ㇐top leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
- Right-falling stroke ㇏centerdown and right → rightwards
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| tiān first tone | day; sky; heaven | — | 今天 天气 明天 昨天 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 1 word
- Words with it
- 515 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 天
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 天 | tiān | day; sky HSK 1 |
| 今天 | jīntiān | today; the present time HSK 1 |
| 天气 天氣 | tiānqì | weather HSK 1 |
| 明天 | míngtiān | tomorrow HSK 1 |
| 昨天 | zuótiān | yesterday HSK 1 |
| 白天 | báitiān | daytime; during the day HSK 1 |
| 星期天 | xīngqītiān | Sunday HSK 1 |
| 前天 | qiántiān | the day before yesterday HSK 3 |
| 半天 | bàntiān | half of the day; a long time HSK 3 |
| 后天 後天 | hòutiān | the day after tomorrow; life after birth… HSK 3 |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
Print at 100%. Several characters: worksheet maker.
Keep going
Contain it:
HSK 1, in list order: