一大早

yīdàzǎo
adverb HSK 7 #8,743

Meanings

  1. 1 early in the morning
  2. 2 first thing in the morning

Characters

Literally 'the very early' — intensifies , so it means 'really early morning.'

Examples

Tā yīdàzǎo jiù chūmén le.
He went out first thing in the morning.
Yīdàzǎo jiù yǒu rén lái qiāomén.
Someone came knocking on the door early in the morning.
Tā yīdàzǎo qǐlái pǎobù.
She gets up first thing in the morning to go running.

Tips

usage
一大早 emphasizes how early it is — earlier than normal 早上. It often pairs with to stress that something happened surprisingly or annoyingly early: 一大早... (first thing in the morning, already...).

Stroke Order

zǎo