弹指一挥间

彈指一揮間

tánzhǐyīhuījiān

idiom

Meanings

1 in the snap of a finger / in a flash
2 literally: in the moment of a finger-flick

Characters

to flick / snap

to wave / flick

moment / interval

Examples

HSK 2

三十年弹指一挥间，孩子都长大了。

Sānshí nián tánzhǐyīhuījiān, háizi dōu zhǎngdà le.

Thirty years passed in the flick of a finger - the children are all grown up now.

HSK 4

弹指一挥间，我们已经毕业十年了。

Tánzhǐyīhuījiān, wǒmen yǐjīng bìyè shí nián le.

In the blink of an eye, it's already been ten years since we graduated.

Tips

history

弹指 (finger-snap) is originally a Buddhist unit of time - a very brief instant. The expression was popularized by Mao Zedong's 1965 ci-poem 《水调歌头·重上井冈山》: 三十八年过去，弹指一挥间 - 'Thirty-eight years have passed, in the flick of a finger.' Used today mostly with spans of years or decades.

usage

Almost always paired with a time span (几十年, 多少年) for nostalgic effect. Rarely used for literally brief moments - for those, prefer 一瞬间 or 转眼间.

Stroke Order

弹 dàn

指 zhǐ

一 yī

挥 huī

间 jiān