Structure of dates

Dates in Chinese follow the order "year, month, day." This is in keeping with the larger "from big to small" trend 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. (Èr líng yīsān nián sì yuè yī rì)

Note that 号 (hào) is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of 日 (rì): 2013年4月1号. (èr líng yīsān nián sì yuè yī hào.) In written Chinese, however, you will see 日 (rì) rather than 号 (hào).

x 年 y 月 z 号

Examples

• 1940 年 11 月 27 日November 27, 1940
• 1973 年 7 月 20 日July 20, 1973
• 1868 年 1 月 18 号January 18, 1868
• 1910 年 8 月 9 号August 9, 1910
• 10 月 1 号 我们 去 上海。We will go to Shanghai October 1st.
• 我 1990 年 7 月 出生。I was born in July 1990.
• 我 2006 年 4 月 17 号 认识 了 他。I met him on April 17, 2006.
• 我 的 生日 是 11 月 17 号。My birthday is November 17th.
• 1980 年 9 月 4 号 我们 结婚 了。We got married on September 4, 1980.
• 1 月 1 日 是 新年。January 1st is New Years Day.
• 12 月 24 日 是 平安夜。December 24th is Christmas Eve.

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