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.

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