DAYS OF THE WEEK

In Chinese, names for days of the week are based on a simple numerical sequence.
The word for ‘week’ is followed by a number indicating the day: ‘Monday’ is literally ‘week one’,
‘Tuesday’ is ‘week two’, etc.

There are two Chinese characters used to represent the word “day”:
 日 – rì
 天 – tiān
These are basically interchangeable, so you can use whichever one you find the
easiest to pronounce. When counting days, you don’t need another measure
word – just simply add a number in front of the word for “day.” For example,
when traveling in China you’ll often see signs for a “one day tour” (一日游
– yī rì yóu).
Here are some other useful words you’ll need for talking about days:

 2 days ago (前天 – qián tiān)

 yesterday (昨天 – zuó tiān)
 today (今天 – jīn tiān)
 tomorrow (明天 – míng tiān)
 in 2 days (后天 – hòu tiān)

Just like with the days, there are two words used for “week” in Chinese:

 周 – zhōu
 星期 – xīng qī
When counting weeks, you’ll need the measure word 个 (gè).
Weekdays Chinese Character Pinyin
Monday 星期一 xīng qī yī
Tuesday 星期二 xīng qī èr
Wednesday 星期三 xīng qī sān
Thursday 星期四 xīng qī sì
Friday 星期五 xīng qī wǔ
Saturday 星期六 xīng qī liù

Sunday
星期日 xīng qī rì
星期天 xīng qī tiān

Notes:
星期(xīng qī) means week.
A week is a 星期, literally a “star period”.
Sunday is slightly different, giving us two choices: 星期日 and 星期天.
There are two other ways to express weeks and days, they are 周(zhōu) and 礼拜(lǐ bài). Both of these have
the day number appended in the same way as for 星期.
For weekend, we say 周末 (zhōu mò).

How can you talk about weeks in the past or future? Here are some examples:

 2 weeks ago (两个星期前 – liǎng gè xīng qī

qián)
 last week (上个星期 – shàng gè xīng qī)
 this week (这个星期 – zhè ge xīng qī)
 next week (下个星期 –xià gè xīng qī)
 2 weeks from now (两个星期后 – liǎng gè
xīng qī hòu)

DAYS – 今, 明, 后, 昨, 前, 天
 天 means “ DAY”

Day Chinese Character Pinyin

今天
TO

Today jīn tiān

Sentence:
Today is Monday.
今天是星期一。
jīn tiān shì xīng qī yī。
Tommorrow 明天 míng tiān
Sentence:
Tomorrow is Tuesday.
明天是星期二。
míng tiān shì xīng qī èr。
The day after tomorrow 后天 hòu tiān
Sentence:
The day after tomorrow is Wednesday.
后天是星期三。
hòu tiān shì xīng qī sān。
Yesterday 昨天 zuó tiān
Sentence:
Yesterday was Sunday.
昨天是星期日。
zuó tiān shì xīng qī rì。
The day before yesterday 前天 qián tiān
Sentence:
The day before yesterday was Saturday.
前天是星期六。
qián tiān shì xīng qī liù 。

MONTHS OF THE YEAR

YEAR 年 NIÁN
Month is 月 (yuè), also the Classical Chinese word for “moon”.
The months of the years in chinese are straightforward.
Months Chinese Character Pinyin
January 一月 yī yuè
February 二月 èr yuè
March 三月 sān yuè
April 四月 sì yuè
May 五月 wǔ yuè
June 六月 liù yuè
July 七月 qī yuè
August 八月 bā yuè
September 九月 jiǔ yuè
October 十月 shí yuè
November 十一月 shí yī yuè
December 十二月 shí èr yuè

Talking about months past or in the

future is exactly the same as talking
about the weeks.
  2 months ago (两个月前 – liǎng gè yuè qián)
 last month (上个月 – shàng gè yuè)
 this month (这个月 – zhè ge yuè)
 next month (下个月 – xià gè yuè)
 2 months from now (两个月后 – liǎng gè
yuè hòu)

How to Say Years in Chinese

In Chinese, one needs to read the digits of the year and 年(nián) which indicates
the year. For example,
2008 is èr líng líng bā nián
2000 is èr líng líng líng nián
1999 is yī jiǔ jiǔ jiǔ nián
2016 is èr líng yī liù nián

The Chinese character for “year” (年 – nián). As with days, you do not need
a measure word when talking about years. Simply add a number before the
character for year – two years (两年 – liǎng nián), ten years (十年 – shí
nián), and so on. Of course, there are some other words you can learn as well:

 2 years ago/the year before last (前年 – qián

nián)
 last year (去年 – qù nián)
 this year (今年 – jīn nián)
 next year (明年 – míng nián)
 2 years from now/the year after next (后年 –
hòu nián)
 How to Say Dates in Chinese
Dates are expressed as the date plus 号（hào). For example,
Jan 1 一月一号 yī yuè yī hào
Mar 8 三月八号 Sān yuè bā hào
Apri 17 四月十七号 Sì yuè shí qī hào
Sept 20 九月二十号 Jiǔ yuè èr shí hào
Nov 11 十一月十一号 shí yī yuè shí yī hào
Dec 31 十二月三十一号 Shí èr yuè sān shí yī hào

When we say a particular day of a year,the year is normally put at

the end in English; for example, Nov 21, 2012. It is different in
Chinese. The right order is Year + Month + Date.

May 13, 2001

2001 年五月 13 号 ／二零零一年五月十三号
Èr líng líng yī nián wǔ yuè shísān hào

Oct 02, 1998

1998 年 10 月 2 号 ／ 一九九八年十月二号
Yī jiǔ jiǔ bā nián shí yuè èr hào

Dec 07, 2016

2016 年 12 月 7 号 ／ 二零一六年十二月七号
Èr líng yī liù nián shí èr yuè qī hào