前
qián HSK1

in front

前 qián
before directional
prior to a specific point in time or event; indicating a time boundary

在会议前，我们要做好准备。

zài huì​yì qián, wǒ​men yào zuò hǎo zhǔn​bèi.

We need to be well-prepared before the meeting.

ago directional
prior to the current time or a specified point in time

他两分钟前还在这里。

tā liǎng fēn​zhōng qián hái zài zhè​lǐ.

He was still here two minutes ago.

front directional
located in front, forward, or ahead in space

请大家向前看。

qǐng dà​jiā xiàng qián kàn.

Everyone, please look ahead.

former directional
previous, formerly, or relating to an earlier status or era (including BC years)

前政府制定的政策目前仍在执行。

qián zhèng​fǔ zhì​dìng de zhèng​cè mù​qián réng zài zhí​xíng.

The policies formulated by the previous government are still being implemented.

top directional
first or leading in a ranking or sequence, usually followed by a number

他的成绩排在全班前三名。

tā de chéng​jì pái zài quán bān qián sān míng.

His grades rank in the top three of the class.

future verb
referring to the time yet to come

做人眼光要向前看，不要总是盯着过去。

zuò​rén yǎn​guāng yào xiàng qián kàn, bù yào zǒng​shì dīng zhe guò​qù.

One should look forward in life and not always dwell on the past.

Frequency
Character
Written text
93rd most common 1971.2 per million
Movie subtitles
109th most common 1606.2 per million appears in 100% of films
Word
Movie subtitles
763.5 per million appears in 92% of films
Written text
987.4 per million

Details
HSK 2.0
Level 1
HSK 3.0
Level 1
Strokes
9
Unicode
U+524D

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICT
Frequency data
MTSU Chinese text computingSUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)