Chinese word

前天

Pronunciation

Pinyinqián tiān

Meaning

  • nounthe day before yesterday

Example

我前天去了图书馆。wǒ qián tiān qù le tú shū guǎn

I went to the library the day before yesterday.

Illustration for 前天 (the day before yesterday)

More examples

我前天晚上吃了苹果。wǒ qián tiān wǎn shàng chī le píng guǒ

I ate an apple the night before last.

Core concept

A point on the calendar found by counting two days back from today.

Common phrases

  • 前天 去qián tiān qù

    go the day before yesterday

  • 前天 晚上qián tiān wǎn shàng

    the night before last

  • 前天 早上qián tiān zǎo shàng

    the morning of the day before yesterday

Similar words

昨天zuó tiān: Yesterday.
今天jīn tiān: Today.
明天míng tiān: Tomorrow.
后天hòu tiān: The day after tomorrow.

Definition in Chinese

前天指离今天两天的那一天，常用来叙述过去发生的事情。qián tiān zhǐ lí jīn tiān liǎng tiān de nà yì tiān cháng yòng lái xù shù guò qù fā shēng de shì qíng

Word origin

In 前天 (qiántiān, "the day before yesterday"), 前 (qián, "before") places 天 (tiān, "day") earlier than today, and the established expression fixes the distance at two days.

Usage tips

  • Chinese time words often come before the action, so this word can set the time frame at the start of a sentence about a past event.

Opposites

Word lists with this word