Expressing Dates in Chinese

 

In today’s article, we’ll take a look at how to express date and time in Chinese, including year, month, day, and week. The principle to follow when expressing them is to put the bigger unit before the smaller unit, in the format of YY/MM/DD. With this principle in mind, let us learn how to express year, month, day and week in Chinese.

年 月 日

年(nián, year)

The year is expressed digit by digit in Chinese, with “年(nián)” acting as the unit for a year. Let’s look few examples below:

  • Year 1987 is read as “1987年, yī jiǔ bā qī nián”

  • Year 2005 is read as “2005年, èr líng líng wǔ nián”

  • Year 2025 is read as “2025年, èr líng èrwǔ nián”


However, when counting the number of years, the number should not be read digit by digit.

  • 25 years is read as “二十五年, èr shí wǔ nián”

  • 37 years is read as “三十七年, sān shí qī nián”

  • 68 years is read as “六十八年, liù shí bā nián”


月(yuè, month)

The unit for month is 月(yuè). The twelve months are expressed as follow:

  • January (一月, yī yuè)

  • February (二月, èr yuè)

  • March (三月, sān yuè)

  • April (四月, sì yuè)

  • May (五月, wǔ yuè)

  • June (六月, liù yuè)

  • July (七月, qī yuè)

  • August (八月, bā yuè)

  • September (九月, jiǔ yuè)

  • October (十月, shí yuè)

  • November (十一月, shí yī yuè)

  • December (十二月, shí èr yuè)


However, when counting the number of months, a measure 个(gè) is put before 月(yuè). For example:

  • Half a month is read as “半个月, bàn gè yuè”

  • 1 month is read as “一个月, yí gè yuè”

  • 3 months is read as “三个月, sān gè yuè”

  • 6 months is read as “六个月, liù gè yuè”


日(day, rì) / 号(day, rì hào)

There are two units for expressing day, the formal one would be 日(rì) and the casual one would be 号(hào). Let's look at some examples below:

  • 6th is read as “六日, liù rì“ or “六号, liù hào”

  • 17th is read as “十七日, shí qī rì” or “十七号, shí qīhào”

  • 25th is read as “二十五日, èr shí wǔ rì” or “二十五号, èr shí wǔ hào”


However, when counting the number of days, the unit that is often used is called 天(tiān), which can mean both day and sky.

  • 2 days is read as “两天, liǎng tiān”

  • 12 days is read as “十二天, shí èr tiān”

  • 23 days is read as “二十三天, èr shí sān tiān”


Hope this article can help you to better grasp the expressions used when saying dates in Chinese. Remember, the terms used in counting are different from the terms used in labeling. Stay tuned to this blog to learn more about various topics related to learning Chinese!

 
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