How to Write 昨 (zuó) — Meaning “Yesterday”

Imagine the sun (日) was 'suddenly' (乍) there yesterday, but now it's gone. You can picture the sun appearing briefly and then disappearing, reminding you that 昨 refers to a past day.

Write the left 日 first with 4 strokes (vertical, horizontal fold and hook, horizontal, horizontal), then the right 乍 with 5 strokes (slash, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, horizontal). A common mistake is making the right side too narrow – keep 乍 slightly wider than the 日 so the character is balanced.

昨 has 乍 on the right and means yesterday (zuó). 旰 has 干 (gān) on the right and means late or sunset (gàn). 旱 has 干 below the sun and means drought (hàn). The key visual difference is the right or bottom component, and their meanings are completely unrelated.

昨 is extremely common in everyday speech, mostly in words like 昨天 (yesterday) and 昨晚 or 昨夜 (last night). It's one of the first time words learned at HSK 1. Chinese speakers often refer to yesterday simply as 昨天 and rarely use 昨 alone except in formal or fixed phrases.

Common words containing 昨 include: 昨天 (zuó tiān) — Yesterday; 昨晚 (zuó wǎn) — Last night; 昨夜 (zuó yè) — Last night.