What 少年 means
- Youth (juvenile - youngster)
These meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the Chinese to Pinyin translator and the Chinese to English translator, so a whole sentence containing 少年 will read it the same way this page does.
Recognise a piece of 少年 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.
Character by character
How to write 少年
Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.
Practise 少年 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.
少年 in a sentence
This entry has no example sentence of its own yet, but 少年 is used in the stories, phrases and grammar examples published elsewhere on this site — all of them are collected here, with pinyin, English and audio.
Words that contain 少年
Questions about 少年
What does 少年 mean in English?
少年 is pronounced shàonián and means Youth (juvenile - youngster).
How do you pronounce 少年?
少年 is shàonián in pinyin — written shaonian without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.
What are the characters in 少年?
少年 is written with 2 characters: 少 (shǎo / shào) Few (lack - little - be missing); Young (teenager), 年 (nián) Year (age - old). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.
What words contain 少年?
Common ones include 青少年 (qīngshàonián) Teenager. Each has its own entry on this site.
Keep going
Translate a whole sentence containing 少年 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.
Browse the dictionary
Every word on this site links to its entry — tap any word in a graded reader, a translation result or an HSK list to land on a page like this one.
Dictionary index