HSK 5 · Time

元旦 Yuándàn “New Year’s Day” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 元旦 means

  1. New Year’s Day

How to say 元旦

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale元Yuán2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale旦dàn4th tone, falling

元旦 in a sentence

  1. 元旦快乐！

    Yuándàn kuàilè!

    Happy New Year!

    Sentence #6583810 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 元旦就在眼前。

    Yuándàn jiù zài yǎnqián.

    New Year’s Day is just around the corner.

    Sentence #778030 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 元旦 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 元 (yuán) with each of its parts in a different colour
元yuáncurrency unitYuán in 元旦
  • 二two · èr
  • 儿legs · ér

Memory aidA person 儿 with the head marked on top 二: the head, the first. Today it is also China’s main unit of money.

The character 旦 (dàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
旦dàndawn; daybreak
  • 日sun · rì
  • 一one · yī

How to write 元旦

元 4 strokes · 旦 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 元旦

Words with 元

元yuán · Chinese monetary unit公元gōngyuán · CE (Common Era)单元dānyuán · unit (forming an entity)元首yuánshǒu · head of state元素yuánsù · element元宵节Yuánxiāojié · Lantern Festival多元化duōyuánhuà · diversification

Words with 旦

一旦yídàn · once

More words: Time & Sequence

未来wèilái · future现代xiàndài · modern times夜yè · night一辈子yíbèizi · (for) a lifetime至今zhìjīn · so far中旬zhōngxún · middle third of a month逐渐zhújiàn · gradually最初zuìchū · at first

FAQs

元旦 (Yuándàn) means “New Year’s Day”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it Yuándàn: Yuán with a 2nd tone, then dàn with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 元旦 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type yuandan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 元旦 from the suggestions. Typing yuandan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
元旦 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.