Meaning of 小时
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- hour
How to use 小时
Use 小时 to count or measure hours, usually with the measure word 个 (gè) before it. Example: 我睡了八个小时。(Wǒ shuì le bā gè xiǎoshí.) I slept for eight hours.
小时 is literally a "small time": 小 (xiǎo) means small and 时 (shí) means time. Think of the day cut into small pieces, and each small piece is one hour.
Common mistake: Learners often use 小时 to tell the clock time, but 小时 measures a length of hours. For "three o'clock" say 三点 (sān diǎn), and for "three hours" say 三个小时 (sān gè xiǎoshí).
小时 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.
小 xiǎo · small · 3 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
时 shí · o'clock · 7 strokes
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Related words
Words that share a character with 小时.
| 时候 | shíhou | time; length of time |
| 时间 | shíjiān | (concept of) time; (duration of) time |
| 小姐 | xiǎojiě | young lady; miss |
| 有时 | yǒushí | sometimes; now and then |
| 有时候 | yǒushíhou | sometimes |
| 小朋友 | xiǎopéngyǒu | child; kid (used to refer to a child, or by an adult to address a child, or, in Taiwan, to |
| 小学 | xiǎoxué | elementary school; primary school |
| 小孩儿 | xiǎoháir | erhua variant of 小孩[xiao3 hai2] |
| 小学生 | xiǎoxuéshēng | primary school student; schoolchild |
| 小心 | xiǎoxīn | to be careful; to take care |
| 当时 | dāngshí | then; at that time |
| 那时 | nà shí | then; at that time |
Questions about 小时
What does 小时 mean?
小时 (xiǎoshí) means "hour" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 小时?
小时 is made of 2 characters: 小 (3 strokes), 时 (7 strokes). That is 10 strokes in total.
Is 小时 an HSK word?
Yes. 小时 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 小时 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 小时 is written 小時.
Can I say 半小时 or does it need 个?
Both 半小时 (bàn xiǎoshí) and 半个小时 (bàn gè xiǎoshí) are correct and mean half an hour. With numbers like 两 or 三, adding 个 is more common in speech, though 两小时 is fine in writing.
What is the difference between 小时 and 时间?
小时 is a specific unit, one hour. 时间 (shíjiān) means time in general, as in 我没有时间 (wǒ méiyǒu shíjiān), I don't have time.