Meaning of 早晨
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- early morning
- also pr. [zao3chen5]
How to use 早晨
早晨 is a time noun for early morning, usually around sunrise until about eight or nine o'clock. It often goes before the verb or at the start of a sentence. Example: 我每天早晨跑步。(Wǒ měitiān zǎochen pǎobù.) I go running every morning.
早 (zǎo) means early, and 晨 (chén) means dawn or morning, so 早晨 is the early part of the morning. Both characters contain 日 (sun), which fits a word about the sun coming up.
Common mistake: Learners often write 晨 as 辰 and forget the 日 on top, or confuse it with 晚 (wǎn, evening). Also note the pronunciation: many speakers say zǎochen with a light, neutral second syllable, though zǎochén is also correct.
早晨 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.
早 zǎo · early · 6 strokes
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晨 chén · dawn · 11 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 早晨.
| 早上 | zǎoshang | early morning |
| 早饭 | zǎofàn | breakfast |
| 早就 | zǎo jiù | already at an earlier time |
| 早餐 | zǎocān | breakfast |
| 早已 | zǎoyǐ | for a long time; long since; (dialect) in the past |
| 早期 | zǎoqī | early period; early phase; early stage |
| 清晨 | qīngchén | early morning |
| 早晚 | zǎowǎn | morning and evening; (in reference to sth that is bound to happen) sooner or later; one of |
| 凌晨 | língchén | very early in the morning; in the wee hours |
| 迟早 | chízǎo | sooner or later |
| 一早 | yīzǎo | early in the morning; at dawn |
| 一大早 | yīdàzǎo | at dawn; at first light |
Questions about 早晨
What does 早晨 mean?
早晨 (zǎochen) means "early morning; also pr. [zao3chen5]" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 早晨?
早晨 is made of 2 characters: 早 (6 strokes), 晨 (11 strokes). That is 17 strokes in total.
Is 早晨 an HSK word?
Yes. 早晨 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 早晨 and 早上?
They mean almost the same thing and are often interchangeable. 早上 is more common in everyday speech and can cover the whole morning before work, while 早晨 sounds a little more written and usually points to the very early hours.
Can I say 早晨 as a greeting like good morning?
In Mandarin, the usual greeting is 早 (zǎo) or 早上好 (zǎoshang hǎo). In Cantonese, 早晨 is the standard way to say good morning, so you may hear it in Hong Kong and Guangdong.