Where 昨 comes from
day
- Meaning part
- 日 (“sun”)
- Sound part
- 乍 (“at first”)
How to write 昨 (zuó, “yesterday”)
昨 (zuó), an HSK 1 character, means “yesterday”. It pairs a meaning part, 日 (“sun”), with a sound part, 乍 (“at first”). It is part of the HSK word 昨天 (“yesterday”), and of 昨儿 (“yesterday”) and 昨日 (“yesterday”). Japanese reads it saku, “yesterday”, as a JLPT N3 kanji.
- Pinyin
- zuó
- Strokes
- 9
- HSK
- 1
- Radical
- 日 (“sun”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
As a left-right character it splits into 日 (“sun”, the radical), strokes 1–4; 乍 (“at first”), strokes 5–9, written the left part first.
- Vertical ㇑top leftdownwards
- Horizontal-turn ㇕top leftrightwards → downwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐bottom leftrightwards
- Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
- Horizontal ㇐toprightwards
- Vertical ㇑topdownwards
- Horizontal ㇐rightrightwards
- Horizontal ㇐centerrightwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| zuó second tone | yesterday | — | 昨天 昨儿 昨日 昨晚 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 1
- 2021 standard
- level 1
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 1 word
- Words with it
- 6 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 昨
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 昨天 | zuótiān | yesterday HSK 1 |
| 昨儿 昨兒 | zuór | yesterday |
| 昨日 | zuórì | yesterday |
| 昨晚 | zuówǎn | yesterday evening; last night |
| 昨儿个 昨兒個 | zuórge | yesterday |
| 昨夜 | zuóyè | last night |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Keep going
HSK 1, in list order: