HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Time

好久 hǎojiǔ “a long time” in Chinese

Said as háojiǔ

Same in Traditional

What 好久 means

  1. a long time
  2. quite a while
  3. (coll.) a long time

How to say 好久

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale好hǎo3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale久jiǔ3rd tone, dipping

Said as háojiǔ. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. How tone changes work

好久 in a sentence

  1. 我们在公园等了好久。

    Wǒmen zài gōngyuán děng le hǎojiǔ.

    We waited in the park for a long time.

    Sentence #4265095 from Tatoeba

  2. 他住在这里好久了。

    Tā zhù zài zhèlǐ hǎojiǔ le.

    He has lived here for a long time.

    Sentence #3702691 from Tatoeba

  3. 好久不见。你怎么样？

    Hǎojiǔ bújiàn. Nǐ zěnmeyàng?

    Long time no see. How are you?

    Sentence #1754832 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 好久 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 好 (hǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
好hǎogood
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 子child · zǐ

Memory aidA woman 女 with her child 子: something good.

The character 久 (jiǔ) drawn as one shape
久jiǔlong

久 is a single shape of 3 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 好久

好 6 strokes · 久 3 strokes

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

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

Words related to 好久

Words with 好

好hǎo · good你好nǐ hǎo · hello好看hǎokàn · good-looking好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing好吃hǎochī · delicious不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed爱好àihào · hobby好多hǎoduō · a lot of好像hǎoxiàng · as if

Words with 久

久jiǔ · long time不久bùjiǔ · soon悠久yōujiǔ · long-standing持久chíjiǔ · lasting

More words: Time & Dates

周zhōu · week直到zhídào · until季jì · season不久bùjiǔ · soon夏天xiàtiān · summer新年xīnnián · New Year冬天dōngtiān · winter春天chūntiān · spring (season)

FAQs

好久 (hǎojiǔ) means “a long time” or “quite a while”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it hǎojiǔ: hǎo with a 3rd tone, then jiǔ with a 3rd tone. In speech it sounds like háojiǔ. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 好久 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type haojiu with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 好久 from the suggestions. Typing haojiu into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
好久 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 5 word list. It is not on the older 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.