昨天
yesterday
zuótiān
What does 昨天 mean?
昨天 (zuótiān) is the Chinese word for 'yesterday' — the day before today. Like other time words in Mandarin (今天 today, 明天 tomorrow), 昨天 sits at the front of a sentence or right after the subject, not at the end the way English often places it: 我昨天去了商店 ('I went to the store yesterday') or 昨天我去了商店 — never *我去了商店昨天. Important: 昨天 itself does not mark the past tense; Chinese has no verb conjugation. The sentence is past because 昨天 says so, and the aspect particle 了 (le) often appears after the verb to mark completion. The set is 前天 (the day before yesterday), 昨天 (yesterday), 今天 (today), 明天 (tomorrow), 后天 (the day after tomorrow).
Character breakdown
yesterday; previous day (日 'sun' radical marks time)
day; sky; heaven
Memory hook: 天 (day) appears in every day-word: 昨天 yesterday, 今天 today, 明天 tomorrow. The first character tells you which day.
Example sentences
我昨天没去上课。
Wǒ zuótiān méi qù shàng kè.
I didn't go to class yesterday.
spoken
昨天晚上我看了一部电影。
Zuótiān wǎnshang wǒ kàn le yí bù diànyǐng.
Last night I watched a movie.
neutral
你昨天去哪儿了？
Nǐ zuótiān qù nǎr le?
Where did you go yesterday?
spoken
昨天的天气很好。
Zuótiān de tiānqì hěn hǎo.
The weather was nice yesterday.
neutral
Common phrases with 昨天
Don't confuse 昨天 with
前天 means 'the day before yesterday' (two days ago). 昨天 is one day ago. 前天 → 昨天 → 今天 → 明天 → 后天.
明天 is 'tomorrow,' the opposite direction. Beginners sometimes mix them up because both end in 天. 昨 (zuó) = past; 明 (míng) = future.
作 (zuò) means 'to do / make' (作业 homework). 昨 (zuó) means 'yesterday.' Same right side, but 作 has the 亻 (person) radical and 昨 has 日 (sun).