tin1 hak1天黑
Jyutpingtin1 hak1
Yaletīn hāk
Definition
To get dark, indicating the arrival of night or dusk.
colloquialtimenature
How it's used
Focuses on the transition period when daylight fades into night. It is often used to signal that it is time to stop working or return home. While it describes the sky, it is primarily used as a temporal marker for the end of the day.
Examples
Hurry home, it is about to get dark.
Why did you only come back after it got dark?
Related words
Common phrases
to work from dawn to dusk
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 夜晚, which refers to the period of night itself rather than the process of the sun setting. Using 天黑 to describe the middle of the night sounds unnatural.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- LocationHow to say where something is using 喺 (hai2), place words like 度, and the common coverbs that work like English prepositions.
- Serial verbsStringing two or more verbs together without any joining word, like go to the shop buy things. Extremely common in Cantonese.
- 將 disposalHow to move the object in front of the verb with 將, to focus on what happens to it. Common in instructions and writing.
