Structure of dates

An introduction to using dates in Chinese.

Structure

As with many things in Chinese, dates are arranged from largest unit to smallest: year, month, day.

x 年 y 月 z 日

So April 1st, 2013 is 2013年4月1日.

Note that 号 is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of 日: 2013年4月1号. In written Chinese, however, you will see 日 rather than 号.

Examples

• 1940年11月27日November 27th,1940
• 1973年7月20日July 20th, 1973
• 1868年1月18号January 18th, 1868
• 1910年8月9号August 9th, 1910

See also

• Structure of numbers
• Structure of days of the week
• Structure of times

Sources and further reading

Books

• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 73-4)　→buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 122-3) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 141-2) →buy