It is common that there are many words which refer to the similar meaning in one language but there also exists little difference between the words. When the foreign students take the intensive Mandarin course in China, they should pay much attention to such words since the differences between such words are small and the words may have something in common which will confuse the foreign students. The foreign students should be careful with the little difference between the words and read more exercises to reinforce the understanding of the usages of the words. Today we will learn such kind of words to get to know the specific meanings of the words. The words are凌晨,拂晓and 黎明.

The three words all refer to time of the morning but the small difference is that they indicate different time period. Now we will see them one by one. The first word 凌晨means the time period between midnight to daylight. Though the definition in the dictionaries reads that 凌晨indicates the time when the day is on or the time approaching the daylight, the practical application of the word 凌晨covers much wider range and the word refers to much wider time period. for example, the two sentences (1)他们昨天凌晨3点起床,收拾好行囊就上路了.(2)这起事故是凌晨1时许发生的,大约一刻钟后，救援人员就赶到了. All use the word 凌晨. The expressions of the two sentences are common and people all feel natural to such expression. But it is obvious that the time of 凌晨3点and 凌晨1时许 is not the time that approaches the daylight. Thus, it can be seen that 凌晨is used to refer to the time period between midnight to daylight.

The second word 拂晓means the time period between daylight and night or the duration of daybreak. For example, the sentence 司令员决定拂晓向山头的敌人发起攻击 the commander decided to attack the enemies at the time of daybreak indicated the time period before daybreak. Another example is as the following. the sentence reads 小山村里，拂晓时分，鸡鸣四起 the rooster tweet at the time of daybreak. People all know that the rooster tweet before the time before daybreak.
Another word黎明should also draw attention from the foreign students in Mandarin language courses in China. the word 黎明means the time period between daybreak and dark. But it is much closer to daylight compared to 拂晓. The word means the period before or after the daybreak. The counterpart in English can be explained as dawn.