间 (jiān): between; among; within

Meanings

1 between; among; within
2 classifier for rooms

Characters

间

jiān

between; room

门 (door) + 日 (sun) - sunlight peeking through a door.

Examples

HSK 1

这间房间很大。

Zhè jiān fángjiān hěn dà.

This room is very large.

HSK 2

时间过得真快。

Shíjiān guò de zhēn kuài.

Time passes really fast.

HSK 7-9

两栋楼之间有一个小公园。

Liǎng dòng lóu zhījiān yǒu yī gè xiǎo gōngyuán.

There is a small park between the two buildings.

Tips

usage

As a measure word 间 counts rooms: 一间卧室 (one bedroom), 三间教室 (three classrooms). The same reading anchors the abstract 'between / interval' family: 时间, 空间, 中间, 之间.

mistakes

Two readings. 间 (1st tone) = the everyday 'between, space, room' sense - by far the more common: 时间, 房间, 空间. 间 (4th tone) = the narrower 'gap / to separate / drive apart' sense, almost always bound in compounds: 间隔, 间谍, 离间. When in doubt, read jiān.

Components

radical

门 mén

door; gate (radical)

Outer door/gate radical (Kangxi #169) - simplified from 門, originally a pair of swing-doors. Surrounds 间 from above and the sides. Carries the visual core: the character pictures a slit between the two doors, hence 'between, interval, room.' The same radical anchors 问 (ask), 闻 (hear), 闹 (noisy), 闪 (flash) - things that happen at, through, or behind a doorway.

semantic

日 rì

sun (semantic)

Inner sun component - pictograph of the sun with a central stroke. The compound reads: sunlight through the crack between two doors = gap, interval, moment between. Originally written 閒 with 月 'moon' (moonlight in the doorway); the 日-version 間 became standard and was later simplified to 间. Used as a measure word for rooms because each room is a partitioned interval.