曾 (céng) means In the past (before - already - once). Below are 11 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
我 曾 经在北京住过两年。
Wǒ céngjīng zài Běijīng zhù guo liǎng nián.
I once lived in Beijing for two years.
Dictionary example · HSK 5 · 曾经
他 曾 在部队里当过参谋。
Tā céng zài bùduì lǐ dāng guo cānmóu.
He once served as a staff officer in the army.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 参谋
他 曾 创造过辉煌的成绩。
Tā céng chuàngzào guo huīhuáng de chéngjì.
He once achieved brilliant results.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 辉煌
这个国家 曾 经是殖民地。
Zhège guójiā céngjīng shì zhímíndì.
This country was once a colony.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 殖民地
这片领土的归属 曾 有争议。
Zhè piàn lǐngtǔ de guīshǔ céng yǒu zhēngyì.
Ownership of this territory was once disputed.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 领土
他 曾 担任这支部队的司令。
Tā céng dānrèn zhè zhī bùduì de sīlìng.
He once served as commander of this unit.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 司令
语言 曾 经是他们之间的屏障。
Yǔyán céngjīng shì tāmen zhījiān de píngzhàng.
Language was once a barrier between them.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 屏障
这座庄园 曾 属于一个贵族家庭。
Zhè zuò zhuāngyuán céng shǔyú yí ge guìzú jiātíng.
This estate once belonged to a noble family.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 贵族
这座城市的纺织业 曾 经非常发达。
Zhè zuò chéngshì de fǎngzhī yè céngjīng fēicháng fādá.
This city's textile industry was once highly developed.
Dictionary example · HSK 6 · 纺织
Reading these is one thing; producing 曾 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
Words that contain 曾
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 曾
How is 曾 used in a sentence?
This page shows 11 sentences using 曾 (céng, "In the past (before - already - once)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 曾 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 曾 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Where can I see the full entry for 曾?
The dictionary page for 曾 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 曾, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
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