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Mythic Mandarin

之前 (zhī qián): meaning and stroke order

之前 (zhī qián) means before, prior to, ago, previously, beforehand.

之前

Simplified
之前
Traditional
之前 (same form)
Pinyin
zhī qián

Stroke order of 之前

之

  • zhī (possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5]); him
  • 3 strokes

Stroke by stroke

前

  • qián front; forward
  • 9 strokes

Stroke by stroke

Meaning of 之前

  1. zhī qián
    • before
    • prior to
    • ago
    • previously
    • beforehand

Radicals of the characters

之
Radical 丿 (Kangxi radical 4) · 4 strokes
前
Radical 刀 (Kangxi radical 18) · 9 strokes · 䒑 on top, 刖 below

Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan database. Structure: the shapes a character is written with (BabelStone IDS), not necessarily parts that carry meaning or sound.

之前 in our stories

Preview version — Chinese review in progress.

  • 舜帝派大禹去治水。在他之前，他的父亲鲧已经治了九年，却没有成功。

    Shùn dì pài Dà Yǔ qù zhìshuǐ zài tā zhīqián tā de fùqīn Gǔn yǐjīng zhì le jiǔ nián què méiyǒu chénggōng

    Emperor Shun sent Yu to control the waters. Before him, Yu's father Gun had tried for nine years without success.

    From the story Yu the Great tames the flood HSK 6

Stories using 之前

Dictionary data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Stroke data: Hanzi Writer data, derived from Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License). Animation: Hanzi Writer (MIT licence). Radicals and stroke counts: Unicode Unihan (Unicode License v3).