Learn Chinese Characters 005 明

By Caren Zuo

明（míng )


The types of charactere script (from left to right)--oracle script, bronzeware script, seal script, regular script

The Sun and the Moon are most foundamental and important substance of this world. The sun in the day gives bright that make living creatures to grow and survive. While at night the moon give birght to exorcise our gerneral fear for darkness.

Chinese acenstors put the character “日” and “月” together, and then a new character “明” ， which means “bright”,  is created.

Later the character “明” got a meaning of “next”. We say “明天” or “明日” for tomorrow, and “明年” for next year. But there are not such expression as “明月”， instead, we say “下个月”。

Both “明天” and “明日” refer to "tomorrow". But the former is more popular. The later is only, or in most cases, used in written language with some flavor of classic Chinese. So in a Chinese poem, you will only find “明日” is used to refer to "tomorrow".

Useful Phrases:

明天 （míng tiān）Tomorrow,  

明日 （míng rì）  Tomorrow, usually only used in written language

明年 （míng nián）Next Year  

明白 （míng bái）understand