Kilo Lingo

(wǎn ān) - good night in Mandarin

wǎnān

Traditional: 晚安

Line drawing of 晚安
Coloured illustration of 晚安
HSK 2
#592 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

good night

Word origin

A two-character greeting. 晚 (wǎn) 'evening, late' joins 安 (ān) 'peace, safe', literally wishing evening peace, hence good night. 安 itself shows a woman 女 under a roof 宀, suggesting safety.

Origin
compound
Root
晚 (wǎn, 'evening') + 安 (ān, 'peace')

Stroke order

Stroke order for 晚

Stroke order for 安

Examples

Good night, see you tomorrow!

After saying good night to his friends, he went to bed.

Good night, darling.

,

Goodnight, sweet dreams.

The child said goodnight to mum.

晚安 (wǎn ān) literally means evening peace and is the standard Mandarin equivalent of good night. 晚 means evening or late and 安 means peaceful or safe. It is used as a parting greeting at night when someone is going to bed. Its morning counterpart is 早安 (zǎo ān, good morning - more formal) or 早上好. In digital communication 晚安 is a very common way to end a late-night conversation.

Where this fits

Used in

Add to review queue

Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.

Go to my review queue

Mandarin · Free printables

晚安: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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

Free for members

The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.

Start your free week

This word is part of lesson 12.