年 nián year
Made up of [干 gàn do; shield; to concern radical 51, 丿 piě 'slash' radical 4]Made with 6 strokes.
Originally a representation of man carrying a sheaf of harvested grain but now much simplified
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 干 gàn component: 岸 àn (bank) 赶 gǎn (to overtake) ; 肝 gān (liver) ; 杆 gān (pole) ; 汗 hàn (perspiration) ; 刊 kān (to print)
Also uses 丿 piě component: 必 bì (certainly) 弟 dì (younger brother) ; 乎 hū (at) ; 久 jiǔ (long time) ; 九 jiǔ (nine) ; 乐 lè (music) ; 么 me (what) ; 乃 nǎi (to be) ; 少 shǎo (less) ; 生 shēng (produce) ; 失 shī (to lose) ; 勿 wù (do not) ; 戊 wù (fifth (ordinal)) ; 午 wǔ (noon) ; 义 yì (justice) ; 之 zhī (him) ; 族 zú (clan)
Different tone
廿 niàn (twenty) ; 念 niàn (to read)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 年, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Proverbs
度日如年 dù rì rú nián Time seems to pass very slowly十年树木,百年树人 shí nián shù mù, bǎi nián shù rén Studying may be slow and arduous but will be worth it
笑一笑,十年少 xiào yī xiào, shí nián shào Happiness is the best cosmetic
学好三年,学坏三天 xué hǎo sān nián, xué huài sān tiān Falling into bad ways is far easier than keeping to the good
郑人争年 Zhèng rén zhēng nián A futile quarrel over a trifling matter. The story is of two men from the state of Zheng arguing endlessly and furiously as to who was born first.
Phrases
今 年 jīn nián This year明 年 míng nián Next year