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Dates in Chinese follow the order "year, month, day." This is in keeping with the "from big to small" trend which pervades many facets of Chinese culture.
Structure
Dates are arranged from largest unit to smallest: year, month, day.
x 年 + y 月 + z 日
So April 1st, 2019 is
2019年4月1日
(èr-líng-yī-jiǔ nián Sìyuè
yī rì).
Note that 号 (hào) is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of 日 (rì):
x 年 + y 月 + z 号
The above example becomes:
2019年4月1号
(èr-líng-yī-jiǔ nián Sìyuè
yī hào). In written Chinese, however, you will see 日
(rì) rather than 号 (hào).
Examples
- 1868 年 1 月 18 号Yī-bā-liù-bā nián Yīyuè shíbā hàoJanuary 18, 1868
- 1910 年 8 月 9 号Yī-jiǔ-yī-líng nián Bāyuè jiǔ hàoAugust 9, 1910
- 2001 年 7 月 20 日èr-líng-líng-yī nián Qīyuè èrshí rìJuly 20th, 2001
- 1 月 1 日 是 新年。Yīyuè yī rì shì Xīnnián.January 1st is New Year's Day.
- 12 月 24 日 是 平安夜。Shí-èryuè èrshí-sì rì shì Píng'ān Yè.December 24th is Christmas Eve.
- 10 月 1 号 我们 去 上海。Shíyuè yī hào wǒmen qù Shànghǎi.We will go to Shanghai on October 1st.
- 我 1990 年 7 月 出生。Wǒ Yī-jiǔ-jiǔ-líng nián Qīyuè chūshēng.I was born in July 1990.
- 你 的 生日 是 11 月 11 号吗？Nǐ de shēngrì shì Shíyīyuè shíyī hào ma?Is your birthday November 11th?
- 我 2006 年 4 月 17 号 认识 了 他。Wǒ èr-líng-líng-liù nián Sìyuè shíqī hào rènshi le tā.I met him on April 17, 2006.
- 1980 年 9 月 4 号 我们 结婚 了。Yī-jiǔ-bā-líng nián Jiǔyuè sì hào wǒmen jiéhūn le.We got married on September 4th, 1980.
See Also
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