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早 — early; morning; Good morning!

early; morning; Good morning!; long ago; prematurely

Pinyin
zǎo
Strokes
6
HSK level
HSK 1
Handwriting
recognition only

How to write 早: 6 strokes

Each cell adds one stroke to the previous ones, with the new stroke in red. Stroke order is not decoration: it sets the proportions of the character and makes handwriting legible to a reader. The syllabus asks you to recognise this character rather than write it by hand.

早 — 6 strokes, in writing order from left to right.

Build a printable practice sheet with 早

Words with 早 in the HSK syllabus: 15

Every word in the official 2026 syllabus that contains this character, with the level it is introduced at. Learning a character pays off through these: each one combines with the characters you already know.

  1. 早zǎoearly; morning; Good morning!; long ago; prematurelyHSK 1
  2. 早饭zǎofànbreakfastHSK 1
  3. 早上zǎoshangearly morningHSK 1
  4. 早餐zǎocānbreakfastHSK 4
  5. 早晨zǎochenearly morningHSK 4
  6. 早期zǎoqīearly period; early phase; early stageHSK 5
  7. 早晚zǎowǎnmorning and eveningHSK 5
  8. 早已zǎoyǐfor a long time; long since; in the pastHSK 5
  9. 趁早chènzǎoas soon as possible; at the first opportunityHSK 7–9
  10. 迟早chízǎosooner or laterHSK 7–9
  11. 及早jízǎoat the earliest possible time; as soon as possibleHSK 7–9
  12. 尽早jǐnzǎoas early as possibleHSK 7–9
  13. 一早yìzǎoearly in the morning; at dawnHSK 7–9
  14. 早年zǎoniánmany years ago; in the past; in one's early yearsHSK 7–9
  15. 早日zǎorìsoon; at an early date; the early days; the pastHSK 7–9

Glosses come from CC-CEDICT, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and are the dictionary’s first sense rather than a translation chosen for context.