Structure of dates

Dates in Chinese follow the order "year, month, day."

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

x 年 y 月 z 号

Examples

• 1940年11月27日November 27th,1940
• 1973年7月20日July 20th, 1973
• 每年的6月5日是世界环境日。Every year June 5th is World Environment Day.
• 1868年1月18号January 18th, 1868
• 1910年8月9号August 9th, 1910
• 10月1号我们去上海。On October first we'll go to Shanghai.
• 我的爸爸是1945年7月去美国的。My dad went to the USA in July, 1945.
• 我是1985年11月17号出生的。I was born November 17, 1985.
• 我的生日是11月17号。My birthday is the 17th of November.
• 1980年9月4号我们结婚了。We got married on September 4th, 1980.
• 1949年10月1日，中华人民共和国 成立 了 。On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established.

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