上午

上午 (shàngwǔ) is the Chinese word for 'morning' — specifically, the late-morning block from roughly 9 a.m. to noon. Chinese divides the day into more precise blocks than English: 早上 (zǎoshang) is early morning (sunrise–9 a.m.

ish), 上午 is mid-to-late morning, 中午 (zhōngwǔ) is noon / midday, 下午 (xiàwǔ) is afternoon, and 晚上 (wǎnshang) is evening / night. The literal meaning of 上午 is 'upper half of 午' — 午 means noon, so 上午 is the half before noon. As a time-word, 上午 functions as a noun and usually goes BEFORE the verb in a sentence: 我上午有课 ('I have class in the morning'), not 我有课上午. For scheduling and formal contexts