HSK 5 · Time

未来 wèilái “future” in Chinese

Traditional 未來

What 未来 means

  1. future
  2. tomorrow
  3. approaching
  4. coming
  5. pending

Measure word 个 gè · 一个未来 yí ge wèilái

How to say 未来

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale未wèi4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale来lái2nd tone, rising

未来 in a sentence

  1. 孩子是我们的未来。

    Háizi shì wǒmen de wèilái.

    Children are our future.

    Sentence #8514529 from Tatoeba

  2. 我觉得你应该考虑到未来。

    Wǒ juéde nǐ yīnggāi kǎolǜ dào wèilái.

    I think you should think about the future.

    Sentence #1319821 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你对未来有什么计划？

    Nǐ duì wèilái yǒu shénme jìhuà?

    What are your plans for the future?

    Sentence #10258713 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 未来 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 未 (wèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
未wèinot yet
  • 一one · yī
  • 木tree · mù
The character 来 (lái) with each of its parts in a different colour
来láito come
  • 未part of the character
  • 丷eight form of 八 · bā

Memory aidDrawn from a stalk of wheat. It was borrowed early on for “to come”.

How to write 未来

未 5 strokes · 来 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

未来 (wèilái) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 未来 (wèilái). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 未来

Words with 未

未必wèibì · not necessarily未免wèimiǎn · rather

Words with 来

来lái · to come出来chūlái · to come out过来guòlái · to come over回来huílai · to return进来jìnlái · to come in上来shànglái · to come up下来xiàlai · to come down后来hòulái · afterwards起来qǐlai · beginning or continuing an action带来dàilái · to bring (about)

More words: Time & Sequence

如今rújīn · nowadays时代shídài · age时刻shíkè · time时期shíqī · period现代xiàndài · modern times夜yè · night一辈子yíbèizi · (for) a lifetime元旦Yuándàn · New Year’s Day

FAQs

未来 (wèilái) means “future” or “tomorrow”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it wèilái: wèi with a 4th tone, then lái with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 未来 is written 未來. The pronunciation is the same.
Use 个 (gè). For example, one future is 一个未来 (yí ge wèilái).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type weilai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 未来 from the suggestions. Typing weilai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
未来 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.