Chinese word

昨晚

Pronunciation

Pinyinzuó wǎn

Meaning

  • adverblast night

Example

昨晚我不能睡觉。zuó wǎn wǒ bù néng shuì jiào

Last night, I couldn't sleep.

Illustration for 昨晚 (last night)

More examples

我们昨晚看电影了。wǒ men zuó wǎn kàn diàn yǐng le

We watched a movie last night.

Core concept

The nighttime period belonging to the day before today.

Common phrases

  • 昨晚看电影zuó wǎn kàn diàn yǐng

    watch a movie last night

  • 昨晚吃饭zuó wǎn chī fàn

    eat dinner last night

  • 昨晚下雨zuó wǎn xià yǔ

    rain last night

Similar words

昨天晚上zuó tiān wǎn shàng: Refers to an event or state from yesterday evening or night in casual conversation.
昨天夜里zuó tiān yè lǐ: Refers to an event or state from the nighttime hours of yesterday.
昨夜zuó yè: Refers to an event or state from the previous night in writing or formal speech.

Definition in Chinese

时间副词，用来表示发生在昨天夜间的动作或状态。shí jiān fù cí yòng lái biǎo shì fā shēng zài zuó tiān yè jiān de dòng zuò huò zhuàng tài

Word origin

昨 (zuó, "yesterday") + 晚 (wǎn, "night") forms a compact time expression for the night of the previous day.

Usage tips

  • English commonly places a time phrase at the end, but Chinese places this kind of time setting in several positions, especially before the subject or verb, without changing its basic meaning.

Opposites

Word lists with this word