日积月累

日積月累

rìjī-yuèlěi

idiom #47,972

Meanings

1 to accumulate day by day and month by month
2 to build up over a long period
3 gradual long-term accumulation

Characters

Examples

HSK 6

日积月累的小问题最终变成了大麻烦。

Rìjīyuèlěi de xiǎo wèntí zuìzhōng biànchéng le dà máfan.

Small problems that piled up over time eventually became big trouble.

HSK 7-9

学习语言要日积月累，不能一蹴而就。

Xuéxí yǔyán yào rìjīyuèlěi, bùnéng yīcù'érjiù.

Learning a language requires steady accumulation - it can't be done overnight.

HSK 7-9

他的财富是日积月累攒下来的。

Tā de cáifù shì rìjīyuèlěi zǎn xiàlái de.

His wealth was built up bit by bit over many years.

Tips

history

From Zhu Xi's Song-dynasty 《答周南仲书》: 但使一日之间整顿得三五次，理会得三五事，则日积月累，自然纯熟 - 'if you tidy up three or five times a day and grasp three or five things, then day by day and month by month understanding becomes natural.' Classic Neo-Confucian self-cultivation framing.

memory

日 (day) + 月 (month) bookend the verbs 积 (pile up) + 累 (accumulate). Literally 'day-pile, month-accumulate'.

Stroke Order

日 rì

积 jī

月 yuè

累 lèi