Dictionary › 半天

半天

bàn tiān

HSK 3.0 level 3 2-character word Measure word 个

半天 (bàn tiān) means "half a day; a long while (informal)". It is an HSK 3.0 level 3 word, and was not on the old six-level HSK list.

What 半天 means

1. half of the day
2. a long time
3. quite a while
4. midair

The characters in 半天

• 半bànhalf; semi-; incomplete
• 天tiānday; sky; heaven

Example sentences

• 他们看了那部电影半天了。
  Tāmen kàn le nà bù diànyǐng bàntiān le.
  They’ve been watching that film for ages.
• 他给我解释了半天，但我还是不明白。
  Tā gěi wǒ jiěshì le bàntiān, dàn wǒ háishi bù míngbai.
  I'm none the wiser for his explanation.

Words containing 半天

• 好半天hǎo bàn tiānmost of the day
• 老半天lǎo bàn tiān(colloquial) a long time
• 上半天shàng bàn tiānmorning
• 下半天xià bàn tiānafternoon
• 前半天qián bàn tiānmorning; a.m.; first half of the day
• 头半天tóu bàn tiānmorning; first half of the day
• 晚半天儿wǎn ban tiān rlate afternoon
• 一半天yī bàn tiānin a day or two; soon
• 前半天儿qián bàn tiān rerhua variant of 前半天
• 头半天儿tóu bàn tiān rerhua variant of 头半天

Go deeper

• The four tones and the neutral tone, to read bàn tiān correctly.
• Look up another word in the free dictionary.