(qián) - in front, before (location) in Mandarin

qián

Traditional: 前

HSK 2

#228 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

in front, before (location)

Word origin

前 (qián) means 'front' or 'before'. It combines elements associated with a foot and a boat, an old image of moving forward, with the knife radical 刂, and came to mean 'in front of' in space and 'before' in time.

Origin: compound
Root: 止 (foot, motion) + 舟 (boat) + 刂 (knife radical)

Stroke order

前

Examples

。

I am in front of you.

。

There is a road in front of my house.

。

Three years ago.

。

There is a bookshop up ahead.

。

We have met before.

前 (qián) means in front, before (location). It is used as a noun in everyday Mandarin speech.

Where this fits

The 1,000 most common Mandarin words

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Appears in 6 words

Multi-character compounds in the corpus that contain 前.

之前zhī qiánbefore, prior to 以前yǐ qiánbefore, previously, in the past 面前miàn qiánin front of, before (someone's face)目前mù qiánat present, currently, for now 前面qián miànfront, ahead, in front 前进qián jìnto advance, to go forward, to march on

Used in

Stories

(1)

迷路
3 min read · Core 1000

Grammar articles

(9)

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Mandarin · Free printables

前: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "前" (in front, before (location)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 5.