早上
morning; in the morning
zǎoshang
What does 早上 mean?
早上 (zǎoshang) is the Chinese noun for 'morning' — specifically the early part of the day, roughly from waking up until about 9 or 10 a.m. As a time word, it goes BEFORE the verb (or at the start of the sentence): 我早上六点起床 ('I get up at six in the morning'). Use 早上好 (zǎoshang hǎo) for 'good morning,' or just 早 (zǎo) as a casual morning greeting. Chinese has finer-grained morning vocabulary than English: 早上 (early morning), 上午 (shàngwǔ, late morning until noon), 中午 (zhōngwǔ, midday), 下午 (xiàwǔ, afternoon). The boundary between 早上 and 上午 is fuzzy — most speakers switch to 上午 after about 9 a.m. The second syllable 上 is in the neutral tone here (zǎoshang, not zǎoshàng).
Character breakdown
early; morning (the sun 日 rising above 十)
up; on; (here) the upper/early part of the day
Memory hook: 早 already means 'early' on its own — 早 + 上 (the 'upper / earlier' part) = the early part of the day, i.e. morning.
Measure word for 早上
Example sentences
早上好！
Zǎoshang hǎo!
Good morning!
spoken
我早上七点起床。
Wǒ zǎoshang qī diǎn qǐchuáng.
I get up at seven in the morning.
neutral
明天早上我们去吃早饭吧。
Míngtiān zǎoshang wǒmen qù chī zǎofàn ba.
Let's go have breakfast tomorrow morning.
spoken
她每天早上都去跑步。
Tā měi tiān zǎoshang dōu qù pǎobù.
She goes running every morning.
neutral
Common phrases with 早上
Synonyms
上午 is 'late morning / a.m.' — roughly 9 a.m. to noon. 早上 is 'early morning' — wake-up time to about 9 a.m. Chinese splits the morning more finely than English.
早晨 means the same as 早上 but is slightly more written/literary, common in news and formal contexts. In daily speech, 早上 dominates.
清晨 is 'early morning / dawn' — the still, just-after-sunrise hours, more poetic. Use it in writing or to evoke a peaceful early hour; in plain speech, 早上 is fine.
Don't confuse 早上 with
上午 covers late morning (post-9 a.m. to noon). 早上 covers early morning. Saying 早上十点 sounds slightly off — most speakers would say 上午十点.
早 alone means 'early' (adjective) or works as a casual greeting ('morning!'). 早上 specifies the time period 'morning.' 我来早了 ('I came early') vs 早上我来 ('I'll come in the morning').
Same suffix structure (上 for time of day), but 晚上 = evening / night. Don't mix the day-half words.