Guònián shí, Xiǎo Liú de dānwèi gěi měi wèi yuángōng fā yí dài miànfěn.
At New Year, Xiao Liu’s workplace gives every employee a bag of flour.
Sentence #934195 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted
How 过年 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.
过guòto cross
寸inch · cùn
辶walking form of 辵 · chuòMeaning part
辶 hints at the meaning (walking); 咼 () hints at the sound. Compare it with guò.
Memory aidWalking 辶 past: to pass, to cross. In the full form 過, 咼 (guō) gave the sound.
年niányear
年 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.
Memory aidA person carrying ripe grain: one harvest, one year.
How to write 过年
过 6 strokes · 年 6 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 过年 (guònián). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
过年 (guònián) means “to celebrate the Chinese New Year”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word.
Say it guònián: guò with a 4th tone, then nián 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, 过年 is written 過年. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type guonian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 过年 from the suggestions. Typing guonian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
过年 is an HSK 3.0 Level 2 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 2 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). Example sentences written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.
过guò4th tone, falling
年nián2nd tone, rising
