大半天

大半天

Chinese

		more than half; the greater part; very likely more than half; the greater part; very likely; most probably	day; sky; heaven
simp. and trad. (大半天)		大半	天

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): dàbàntiān

  (Zhuyin): ㄉㄚˋ ㄅㄢˋ ㄊㄧㄢ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): daai⁶ bun³ tin¹

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: dàbàntiān
    • Zhuyin: ㄉㄚˋ ㄅㄢˋ ㄊㄧㄢ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: dahbanntian
    • IPA ^(key): /tä⁵¹⁻⁵³ pän⁵¹ tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: daai⁶ bun³ tin¹
    • Yale: daaih bun tīn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: daai⁶ bun³ tin¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: dai⁶ bun³ tin¹
    • IPA ^(key): /täːi̯²² puːn³³ tʰiːn⁵⁵/

Noun

大半天

1. most of the day; most of the daytime in a day

   我忙了大半天了，活兒就不停地來；可逮著了個空兒歇會兒！ [dialectal Mandarin, trad.]
   我忙了大半天了，活儿就不停地来；可逮着了个空儿歇会儿！ [dialectal Mandarin, simp.]

   Wǒ máng le dàbàntiān le, huór jiù bùtíng de lái; kě děi zháo le ge kòngr xiē huǐr! [Pinyin]

   I was busy all day, and the work just keeps coming; I finally could get hold of some time to rest a little!

2. (figuratively) a long time; quite a while