时候
shí hou
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 時候
The moment or period when something happens. Two patterns to learn first: 什么时候 asks 'when?' (你什么时候去？ 'when are you going?'), and a phrase followed by 的时候 means 'when…' or 'while…': 我小的时候 'when I was little'. The second syllable has a neutral tone.
Lúc, khi: thời điểm hay quãng thời gian một việc xảy ra. Hai cách dùng cần học trước: 什么时候 là “bao giờ, khi nào” (你什么时候去？ bao giờ bạn đi?), còn một cụm từ + 的时候 là “lúc…, khi…”: 我小的时候 (hồi tôi còn nhỏ). Chú ý trật tự: tiếng Việt đặt “khi” lên trước, tiếng Trung đặt 的时候 ra sau.
NounRegister: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 064 (2026-11-14). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 时/時 = thời, 候 = hậu · No Vietnamese entry is linked as its twin; the Hán-Việt reading is given character by character. Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Common questions
What does “时候” mean?
The moment or period when something happens. Two patterns to learn first: 什么时候 asks 'when?' (你什么时候去？ 'when are you going?'), and a phrase followed by 的时候 means 'when…' or 'while…': 我小的时候 'when I was little'. The second syllable has a neutral tone.
Is “时候” formal or informal?
时候 is generally neutral.