young
HSK level
年轻 is written with 15 strokes (年: 6, 轻: 9). The animation replays automatically.
年轻 (niánqīng) is the adjective for 'young' applied to people — typically anyone from teenagers through their thirties or forties, depending on the speaker's perspective.
It literally means 'years light,' i.e. not weighed down by many years. Two distinctions matter for English speakers: first, 年轻 is for people, not for objects — a young tree is 小, a new company is 新, not 年轻.
Second, 年轻 is broader than English 'young child'; a 年轻人 is a young adult, not a kid (use 小孩 for children). The opposite is 老 (lǎo, old). Common patterns: 年轻的时候 ('when [I] was young'), 年轻人 ('young person / youth'), 看起来很年轻 ('looks young'). It's a compliment in almost every context.
Character by character
Memory hook: Few years = light years on your back = young.
年轻 appears in 1 Fluentide podcast episode at natural native speed — each with the full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Browse the full episode library她看起来很年轻。
Tā kàn qǐlái hěn niánqīng.
She looks very young.
spoken
年轻的时候，我喜欢运动。
Niánqīng de shíhou, wǒ xǐhuan yùndòng.
When I was young, I liked sports.
neutral
现在的年轻人喜欢用手机看新闻。
Xiànzài de niánqīngrén xǐhuan yòng shǒujī kàn xīnwén.
Young people today like to read news on their phones.
neutral
你比我年轻三岁。
Nǐ bǐ wǒ niánqīng sān suì.
You're three years younger than me.
spoken
他还年轻，可以再学。
Tā hái niánqīng, kěyǐ zài xué.
He's still young — he can learn again.
spoken
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