HSK 3.0 Level 1 · Time

天 tiān “day” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 天 means

  1. day
  2. sky
  3. heaven

How to say 天

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale天tiān1st tone, high and level

天 in a sentence

  1. 我在北京住了三天。

    Wǒ zài Běijīng zhù le sān tiān.

    I stayed in Beijing for three days.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 一个星期有七天。

    Yí ge xīngqī yǒu qī tiān.

    There are seven days in a week.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  3. 这几天我很忙。

    Zhè jǐ tiān wǒ hěn máng.

    I’ve been very busy the last few days.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 天 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 天 (tiān) with each of its parts in a different colour
天tiānday
  • 一one · yī
  • 大big · dà

Memory aidA person 大 with the sky 一 above: sky, heaven, day.

How to write 天

天 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 天

Words with 天

今天jīntiān · today明天míngtiān · tomorrow昨天zuótiān · yesterday天气tiānqì · weather白天báitiān · daytime星期天Xīngqītiān · Sunday聊天liáotiān · to chat夏天xiàtiān · summer冬天dōngtiān · winter春天chūntiān · spring (season)

More words: Time & Dates

白天báitiān · daytime后hòu · after今年jīnnián · this year明年míngnián · next year晚wǎn · evening星期日Xīngqīrì · Sunday星期天Xīngqītiān · Sunday早zǎo · early

FAQs

天 (tiān) means “day” or “sky”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word.
Say it tiān: tiān with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 天 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type tian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 天 from the suggestions. Typing tian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
天 is an HSK 3.0 Level 1 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 1 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.