Meaning of 青少年
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- adolescent
- youth
- teenager
How to use 青少年
青少年 is a fairly formal word used in news, schools, and public notices to talk about young people as a group, roughly ages 12 to 18 or a bit older. It often appears before other nouns, as in 青少年问题 (qīngshàonián wèntí, youth issues). Example: 这本书很受青少年欢迎。(Zhè běn shū hěn shòu qīngshàonián huānyíng.) This book is very popular with teenagers.
Break it into three parts: 青 (qīng) means young or green like spring plants, 少 (shào) means young, and 年 (nián) means years. Young plus young years gives you the teenage and youth stage of life.
Common mistake: In this word 少 is read shào (fourth tone, meaning young), not shǎo (third tone, meaning few) as in 多少 (duōshao). Learners also mix up 青 (qīng) with similar-looking 请 (qǐng, please) or 清 (qīng, clear), which have an extra radical on the left.
青少年 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.
青 qīng · green · 8 strokes
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少 shǎo · few · 4 strokes
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年 nián · year · 6 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 青少年.
| 多少 | duōshao | number; amount; somewhat |
| 今年 | jīnnián | this year |
| 去年 | qùnián | last year |
| 明年 | míngnián | next year |
| 半年 | bàn nián | half a year |
| 新年 | xīnnián | New Year |
| 年轻 | niánqīng | young |
| 不少 | bù shǎo | many; quite a few; a good number of |
| 少年 | shàonián | early youth; youngster |
| 青年 | qīngnián | youth; youthful years |
| 少数 | shǎoshù | small number; few |
| 周年 | zhōunián | anniversary; annual |
Questions about 青少年
What does 青少年 mean?
青少年 (qīng-shàonián) means "adolescent; youth" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 青少年?
青少年 is made of 3 characters: 青 (8 strokes), 少 (4 strokes), 年 (6 strokes). That is 18 strokes in total.
Is 青少年 an HSK word?
Yes. 青少年 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 青少年 and 年轻人?
青少年 refers to adolescents and teens as a group and sounds formal or official. 年轻人 (niánqīngrén) means young people more broadly, including people in their twenties and thirties, and is common in everyday speech.
Can I use 青少年 to talk about one specific teenager?
It is usually used for teenagers as a group or category. To refer to one person, Chinese speakers more often say 一个十几岁的孩子 (yí ge shí jǐ suì de háizi) or simply 孩子 or 年轻人.