早

zǎo
#462 most
frequent character
early
adjective

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

早 first meant 'morning', with 日 'sun' as the meaning part. 十 is an emptied form of 棗 zǎo, which once gave the sound. From 'morning' the sense grew to 'early' and then 'first; already'.

早 as a component in other characters

sound1 character
草
picture1 character
覃

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Example Sentences

我今天早起了。
wǒ jīntiān zǎoqǐ le 。
I woke up early today.
老师早上很早就来了。
lǎoshī zǎoshàng hěn zǎojiù lái le 。
The teacher arrived very early in the morning.
他总是早到学校。
tā zǒngshì zǎo dào xuéxiào 。
He always arrives at school early.

Words with similar meanings

提早tízǎo
to be early
提早 implies doing something ahead of the usual time, often used in a more formal context.

Words Starting With 早

早上zǎo shang
early morning

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