HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Time

后年 hòunián “the year after next” in Chinese

Traditional 後年

What 后年 means

  1. the year after next

How to say 后年

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale后hòu4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale年nián2nd tone, rising

后年 in a sentence

  1. 汤姆将在后年高中毕业。

    Tāngmǔ jiāng zài hòunián gāozhōng bìyè.

    Tom will graduate from high school the year after next.

    Sentence #13573428 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

How 后年 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.

The character 后 (hòu) drawn as one shape
后hòuempress

后 is a single shape of 6 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidIts first meaning was “queen”. As a simplified character it also stands for 後: behind, after.

The character 年 (nián) drawn as one shape
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 后年

后 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.

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

Words related to 后年

Words with 后

后hòu · after后面hòumiàn · back后来hòulái · afterwards最后zuìhòu · last然后ránhòu · then以后yǐhòu · after后天hòutiān · the day after tomorrow后悔hòuhuǐ · to regret之后zhīhòu · after后背hòubèi · back (of the body)

Words with 年

年nián · year今年jīnnián · this year明年míngnián · next year去年qùnián · last year过年guònián · to celebrate the Chinese New Year年轻niánqīng · young年级niánjí · grade新年xīnnián · New Year前年qiánnián · the year before last年龄niánlíng · (a person’s) age

More words: Time & Dates

白天báitiān · daytime后天hòutiān · the day after tomorrow四季sìjì · the four seasons工作日gōngzuòrì · working day前年qiánnián · the year before last之后zhīhòu · after之前zhīqián · before最终zuìzhōng · final

FAQs

后年 (hòunián) means “the year after next”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it hòunián: hòu 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, 后年 is written 後年. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hounian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 后年 from the suggestions. Typing hounian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
后年 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.