Meaning of 天然
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- natural
How to use 天然
天然 describes things that come from nature rather than factories, such as gas, materials, or beauty. It often goes right before a noun, sometimes with 的. Example: 这是天然的水。(Zhè shì tiānrán de shuǐ.) This is natural water.
天 (tiān) means sky or heaven, and 然 (rán) means so or like this. Something 天然 is the way the sky made it, untouched by people.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 天然 with 自然 (zìrán). 自然 can also mean nature itself or naturally as an adverb, while 天然 is mostly an adjective meaning not man-made. Also keep 然 in the second tone, rán, not a neutral tone.
天然 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.
天 tiān · day · 4 strokes
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然 rán · certainly · 12 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 天然.
| 今天 | jīntiān | today; the present time; now |
| 明天 | míngtiān | tomorrow |
| 昨天 | zuótiān | yesterday |
| 天气 | tiānqì | weather |
| 白天 | báitiān | daytime; during the day |
| 星期天 | xīngqītiān | Sunday |
| 后天 | hòutiān | the day after tomorrow; life after birth (the period in which one develops through experie |
| 半天 | bàntiān | half of the day; a long time |
| 前天 | qiántiān | the day before yesterday |
| 然后 | ránhòu | then; after that; afterwards |
| 虽然 | suīrán | although; even though (often used correlatively with 可是[ke3 shi4] or 但是[dan4 shi4] etc) |
| 夏天 | xiàtiān | summer |
Questions about 天然
What does 天然 mean?
天然 (tiānrán) means "natural" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 天然?
天然 is made of 2 characters: 天 (4 strokes), 然 (12 strokes). That is 16 strokes in total.
Is 天然 an HSK word?
Yes. 天然 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How do you say natural gas in Chinese?
Natural gas is 天然气 (tiānránqì). The 气 (qì) here means gas, the same 气 you see in 天气 (tiānqì) weather.
What is the opposite of 天然?
The usual opposite is 人工 (réngōng), meaning man-made or artificial. For example, 天然湖 (tiānrán hú) is a natural lake and 人工湖 (réngōng hú) is an artificial lake.