HSK 6 · Time

正月 zhēngyuè “first month of the lunar year” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 正月 means

  1. first month of the lunar year

How to say 正月

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale正zhēng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale月yuè4th tone, falling

正月 in a sentence

  1. 正月十五是元宵节。

    Zhēngyuè shíwǔ shì Yuánxiāojié.

    The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 正月里，大家都忙着走亲戚。

    Zhēngyuè lǐ, dàjiā dōu máng zhe zǒu qīnqi.

    In the first lunar month, everyone is busy visiting relatives.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 正月 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 正 (zhèng) with each of its parts in a different colour
正zhēngfirst month of the lunar year
  • 一one · yī
  • 止stop · zhǐ

Memory aidPicture a foot 止 heading straight for a line 一: straight, correct.

The character 月 (yuè) with each of its parts in a different colour
月yuèmoon
  • 冂down box · jiōng
  • 二two · èr

Memory aidDrawn from a crescent moon.

How to write 正月

正 5 strokes · 月 4 strokes

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

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

Words related to 正月

Words with 正

正在zhèngzài · in the process of正常zhèngcháng · regular正确zhèngquè · correct正式zhèngshì · formal真正zhēnzhèng · genuine正好zhènghǎo · just (in time)正zhèng · just (in the middle of doing something)改正gǎizhèng · to correct反正fǎnzhèng · anyway更正gēngzhèng · to correct

Words with 月

月yuè · month月亮yuèliang · the moon岁月suìyuè · years日新月异rìxīnyuèyì · changing rapidly

More words: Time & Sequence

原先yuánxiān · originally元宵节Yuánxiāojié · Lantern Festival预先yùxiān · in advance暂且zànqiě · for the time being终身zhōngshēn · lifelong周年zhōunián · anniversary周期zhōuqī · cycle昼夜zhòuyè · day and night

FAQs

正月 (zhēngyuè) means “first month of the lunar year”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zhēngyuè: zhēng with a 1st tone, then yuè with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 正月 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhengyue with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 正月 from the suggestions. Typing zhengyue into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
正月 is an HSK 6 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.