Lesson 8: Year Month and Day
This lesson will teach you how to say date and year in Chinese. The good news is, there is no confusion in Chinese about which unit goes first (Month, or Year) because they always say the larger unit first. "Year/Month/Day" or "Month/Day".
Vocabulary:
| Chinese Character | Pinyin | Pronunciation | Word Class | English Translation | |
| 年 | nián | (n.) | year | ||
| 去年 | qù nián | (n.) | last year | ||
| 去 | qù | (v.) | go away, leave, depart | ||
| 今年 | jīn nián | (n.) | this year | ||
| 今 | jīn | (n.) | now, today, modern era | ||
| 明年 | míng nián | (n.) | next year | ||
| 明 | míng | (n.) | bright, light, brilliant; clear | ||
| 月 | yuè | (n.) | month | ||
| 上 | shàng | (a.) | above | ||
| 下 | xià | (a.) | below, under | ||
| 个 | gè | (n.) | measure word; individual | ||
| 天 | tiān | (n.) | day | ||
| 昨天 | zuó tiān | (n.) | yesterday | ||
| 昨 | zuó | (n.) | yesterday; former times, past | ||
| 今天 | jīn tiān | (n.) | today | ||
| 明天 | míng tiān | (n.) | tomorrow | ||
| 星期 | xīng qī | (n.) | week | ||
| 几 | jǐ | (pron.) | which | ||
| 日 | rì | (n.) | day | ||
| 号 | hào | (n.) | day (slang) | ||
Tips:
- "this year" and "today" in Chinese both share the word "jin-今"
-
"next year" and "tomorrow" in Chinese both share the word "ming-明"
- "last year" and "yesterday" in Chinese are quite different, note "qu-去“ and "zuo-昨"
- "next month" and "next week" can both use "xia ge - 下个" + month or week.
- "last month" and "last week" can both use "shang ge - 上个" + month or week
- When to state a specific year, month or date, you can simply use the number and plus the word "year" or "month" or "day" (ri-日 or hao-号)
Dialog A:
Click to hear the above dialog.
English Translation A:
What day is it today ?
Today is Thursday.
Yesterday is Wednesday.
What date is it tomorrow?
Tomorrow is August 28th.
Dialog B:
Click to hear the above dialog.
English Translation B:
Today is February 8th, 2007.
Last month was January.
Next month is March.
Next year is 2008.
Last year was 2006.
Chinese Calligraphy:
Questions and Comments
