今 (jīn) is a Chinese character meaning “now”. It is written from ㇒ (left-falling stroke) and ㇏ (right-falling stroke) and ㇔ (dot stroke) and ㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke), and takes 4 strokes.
Build the character for “now”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇒ + ㇏ + ㇔ + ㇇
Overlapping structure
- ㇒ left-falling stroke unknown
- ㇏ falling-right stroke unknown
- ㇔ dot stroke unknown
- ㇇ horizontal-turning stroke unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+4ECA and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (four strokes: 撇 / 捺 / 点 / 横撇)
Memory aid
A left-falling stroke (㇒) and a right-falling stroke (㇏) lean together into a wide roof. Under that roof a single dot (㇔) marks the spot you are standing on, and a horizontal-turning stroke (㇇) closes the floor beneath it — the moment you are in right now.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
4 strokes
In real words
- 今天jīn tiāntoday今 = jīn
- 今昔jīn xīthe present and the past今 = jīn
- 至今zhì jīnup to now; so far今 = jīn
- 迄今qì jīnup to now; so far今 = jīn
- 迄今为止qì jīn wéi zhǐup to the present; so far今 = jīn
- 今晚jīn wǎntonight; this evening今 = jīn
Go deeper
All readings
now
now; the present; this (day, year) — as in 今天 today
现在；当前的这一个，如今天、今年。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 今天jīn tiāntoday今 = jīn
- 今昔jīn xīthe present and the past今 = jīn
- 至今zhì jīnup to now; so far今 = jīn
- 迄今qì jīnup to now; so far今 = jīn
- 迄今为止qì jīn wéi zhǐup to the present; so far今 = jīn
- 今晚jīn wǎntonight; this evening今 = jīn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 今 mean?
今 (jīn) means now; the present; this (day, year) — as in 今天 today.
How do you pronounce 今?
It is pronounced jīn.
What parts is 今 made of?
㇒ (left-falling stroke) and ㇏ (right-falling stroke) and ㇔ (dot stroke) and ㇇ (horizontal-turning stroke). The recorded source is: Unicode U+4ECA and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (four strokes: 撇 / 捺 / 点 / 横撇). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 今 have?
4. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 今?
人. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 今?
Common ones are 今天. The reading of 今 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.