Meaning of 半夜
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- midnight
- in the middle of the night
How to use 半夜
半夜 refers to the late hours around midnight and is often used to say something happened or was done unusually late. It usually comes before the verb as a time word. 他半夜才回家。(Tā bànyè cái huí jiā.) He didn't get home until the middle of the night.
半 (bàn) means half and 夜 (yè) means night, so 半夜 is the point where the night is cut in half. Picture the clock splitting the dark hours right down the middle.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes put 半夜 at the end of the sentence like English "at midnight," as in 我睡觉半夜. In Chinese the time word goes before the verb: 我半夜睡觉 (wǒ bànyè shuìjiào).
半夜 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
半 bàn · half · 5 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
夜 yè · night · 8 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
Related words
Words that share a character with 半夜.
| 一半 | yībàn | half |
| 半年 | bàn nián | half a year |
| 半天 | bàntiān | half of the day; a long time |
| 夜里 | yèlǐ | during the night; at night |
| 夜间 | yèjiān | nighttime; evening or night (e.g. classes) |
| 黑夜 | hēiyè | night |
| 日夜 | rìyè | day and night; around the clock |
| 多半 | duōbàn | most; mostly |
| 半决赛 | bànjuésài | semifinals |
| 开夜车 | kāi yèchē | to burn the midnight oil; to work late into the night |
| 夜晚 | yèwǎn | night |
| 夜总会 | yèzǒnghuì | nightclub; nightspot |
Questions about 半夜
What does 半夜 mean?
半夜 (bànyè) means "midnight; in the middle of the night" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 半夜?
半夜 is made of 2 characters: 半 (5 strokes), 夜 (8 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 半夜 an HSK word?
Yes. 半夜 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Is 半夜 exactly 12 o'clock at night?
Not necessarily. 半夜 is a loose term for the deep night around midnight and the hours after it. For exactly 12:00 at night you can say 午夜 (wǔyè) or 夜里十二点 (yèlǐ shí'èr diǎn).
What is the difference between 半夜 and 夜里?
夜里 (yèlǐ) means any time during the night in general. 半夜 points to the late, middle part of the night, so it often suggests something is happening at an odd or inconvenient hour.