Where 早 comes from
The first rays 十 of the sun 日
How to write 早 (zǎo, “early”)
早 (zǎo), an HSK 1 character, means “early”, “morning” and “Good morning!”. It is a character whose parts combine into its meaning. On its own it is an HSK 1 word; it also forms 早上 (“early morning”), 早饭 (“breakfast”) and 早晨 (“early morning”). Japanese reads it haya-meru, “early”, as a JLPT N4 kanji.
- Pinyin
- zǎo
- Strokes
- 6
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 日 (“sun”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
As a top-bottom character it splits into 日 (“sun”, the radical), strokes 1–4; 十 (“ten”), strokes 5–6, written the top first.
- Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕top leftrightwards → downwards
- Horizontal ㇐toprightwards
- Horizontal ㇐centerrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Vertical ㇑centerdownwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| zǎo third tone | early; morning; Good morning!; long ago; prematurely | — | 早上 早饭 早晨 早餐 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 2 word
- Words with it
- 92 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 早
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 早 | zǎo | early; morning HSK 1 |
| 早上 | zǎoshang | early morning HSK 1 |
| 早饭 早飯 | zǎofàn | breakfast HSK 1 |
| 早晨 | zǎochen | early morning HSK 4 |
| 早餐 | zǎocān | breakfast HSK 4 |
| 早晚 | zǎowǎn | morning and evening; sooner or later HSK 5 |
| 早期 | zǎoqī | early period; early phase HSK 5 |
| 早已 | zǎoyǐ | for a long time; long since HSK 5 |
| 一早 | yìzǎo | early in the morning; at dawn HSK 7-9 |
| 早年 | zǎonián | many years ago; in the past HSK 7-9 |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 1, in list order: