HSK 5 · Time

迟早 chízǎo “sooner or later” in Chinese

Traditional 遲早

What 迟早 means

  1. sooner or later

How to say 迟早

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale迟chí2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale早zǎo3rd tone, dipping

迟早 in a sentence

  1. 大部分人迟早要结婚。

    Dàbùfen rén chízǎo yào jiéhūn.

    Most people get married sooner or later.

    Sentence #792840 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 他迟早会回来的。

    Tā chízǎo huì huílai de.

    He will come back sooner or later.

    Sentence #333225 from Tatoeba

  3. 迟早他的运气会用完。

    Chízǎo tā de yùnqi huì yòng wán.

    Sooner or later his luck will run out.

    Sentence #765548 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 迟早 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 迟 (chí) with each of its parts in a different colour
迟chílate
  • 尺part of the characterSound part
  • 辶walking form of 辵 · chuòMeaning part
The character 早 (zǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
早zǎoearly
  • 日sun · rì
  • 十ten · shí

How to write 迟早

迟 7 strokes · 早 6 strokes

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

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

Words related to 迟早

Words with 迟

迟到chídào · arrive late推迟tuīchí · to postpone迟疑chíyí · to hesitate迟钝chídùn · slow-witted迟缓chíhuǎn · slow

Words with 早

早zǎo · early早饭zǎofàn · breakfast早上zǎoshang · morning及早jízǎo · as early as possible

More words: Time & Sequence

以后yǐhòu · after傍晚bàngwǎn · dusk曾经céngjīng · once除夕Chúxī · lunar New Year’s Eve从此cóngcǐ · from now on从前cóngqián · previously公元gōngyuán · CE (Common Era)作息zuòxī · work and rest

FAQs

迟早 (chízǎo) means “sooner or later”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it chízǎo: chí with a 2nd tone, then zǎo with a 3rd 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, 迟早 is written 遲早. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chizao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 迟早 from the suggestions. Typing chizao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
迟早 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.