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

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
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.
每年的 12 月 24 日是我们的平安夜。Every year December 24th is our Christmas Eve.