Today’s word of the day is 老 (lǎo) which means ‘old’. Let’s practice by making different words, phrases, and sentences with 老 (lǎo).
老天爷 (lǎo tiān yé) Heavens
The first word is 老天爷 (lǎo tiān yé) which means ‘heavens’. Let’s look at each character of this word, 老 means old, 天 means sky, and 爷 means grandfather. An idiom with this word in it is 老天爷饿不死瞎家雀。(Lǎotiānyé è bùsǐ xiā jiā qiǎo.) The heavens won’t let the sparrows go hungry. This means if you don’t give up, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
老是 (lǎo shì) Always
Another word we can create with 老 (lǎo) is 老是 (lǎo shì). This means ‘always’. Let’s again look at each character of this word, 老 means old and 是 means to be. A way of using it in a sentence is 他老是喜欢说脏话。(Tā lǎo shì xǐhuān shuō zānghuà.) He always likes to say curse words.
古老 (gǔ lǎo) Ancient
Finally, we can create the word 古老 (gǔ lǎo) which means ‘ancient’. A way of using it in a sentence is 这栋古老的房子有两百多年的历史。(Zhè dòng gǔlǎo de fángzi yǒu liǎng bǎi duō nián de lìshǐ.) This ancient house has over 200 years of history.