原先

原先 yuánxiān

Original (former)

原先 in a sentence HSK 6 yuanxian

What 原先 means

  1. Original (former)

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 原先 will read it the same way this page does.

Recognise a piece of 原先 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

原先 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

原
yuán
Original (raw - forgive - plain - primary - source)
先
xiān
Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late)

How to write 原先

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 原先 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

原先 in a sentence

原先的计划已经改了。
Yuánxiān de jìhuà yǐjīng gǎi le.
The original plan has been changed.
他比原先胖了一些。
Tā bǐ yuánxiān pàng le yìxiē.
He is a little heavier than before.

Every sentence on this site that uses 原先 is collected on the 原先 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 原先

What does 原先 mean in English?

原先 is pronounced yuánxiān and means Original (former).

How do you pronounce 原先?

原先 is yuánxiān in pinyin — written yuanxian without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 原先?

原先 is written with 2 characters: 原 (yuán) Original (raw - forgive - plain - primary - source), 先 (xiān) Earlier (before - first - prior - former - late). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 原先 an HSK word?

Yes — 原先 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

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Translate a whole sentence containing 原先 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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