Structure of dates

Revision as of 06:09, 11 August 2015 by Luojie (talk | contribs) (→‎Examples)

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 201341日. (Èr líng yīsān nián yuè rì)

Note that 号 (hào) is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of 日 (rì): 201341号. (èr líng yīsān nián yuè hào.) In written Chinese, however, you will see 日 (rì) rather than 号 (hào).

x 年 y 月 z 号

Examples

  • 1940 11 27 Yījiǔsì líng nián shíyī yuè èrshíqī November 27, 1940
  • 1973 7 20 Yījiǔqīsān niányuè èrshí July 20, 1973
  • 1868 1 18 Yībāliùbā niányuè shíbā hàoJanuary 18, 1868
  • 1910 8 9 Yījiǔyī líng niányuè jiǔ hàoAugust 9, 1910
  • 10 1 我们 去 上海。Shí yuèhào wǒmen qù shànghǎi.We will go to Shanghai on October 1st.
  • 我 1990 7 出生。Wǒ yījiǔjiǔ líng niányuè chūshēng.I was born in July 1990.
  • 我 2006 4 17 认识 了 他。Wǒ èr líng líng liù niányuè shíqī hào rènshíle tā.I met him on April 17, 2006.
  • 我 的 生日 是 11 17 Wǒ de shēngrì shì shíyī yuè shíqī hào.My birthday is on November 17th.
  • 1980 9 4 我们 结婚 了。Yījiǔbā líng nián jiǔ yuèhào wǒmen jiéhūn le.We got married on September 4, 1980.
  • 1 1 是 新年。yuè shì xīnnián.January 1st is New Years Day.
  • 12 24 是 平安夜。Shí'èr yuè èrshísì shì píng'ān yè.December 24th is Christmas Eve.

See also

Sources and further reading

Books