Introduction

In my previous post Numbers in Chiense I went over the basics of numbers in Chinese, but I also mentioned once you've learnt some numbers you'll find it useful for saying other things like dates and time. In this post this is what I intend to do.

Saying the day of the week:

Before going over the days of the week one important word to know is the word for week 星期（xīng qí). Once you know this word then saying a day of the week becomes easy as saying the number of that day in a week. The only one that doesn't follow this pattern is Sunday, which uses 日（rì）which translates to day.

day of the week pattern

星期(xīng qí) + number of day of week (except Sunday)

Saying a month of the year:

Months follow a similar pattern to days of the week, but the number comes first and the important word to learn is 月(yuè) which means month. So saying a month is as straight forward as saying the number of the month before the chinese word for month.

month pattern

number of month + 月(yuè)

Saying the time:

There are two parts to saying the time in Chinese, just like most languages.

• 點 (diǎn) Point or o’clock - Like most words in Chinese a word can have multiple meanings, but in this context we are referring to time.
• 分（fēn）Minute

So knowing how to say o'clock and minute in Chinese, you say the number before each to say a time, just like the patterns below:

hour pattern

number of hour + 點 (diǎn – o’clock)

minute pattern

number of minute + 分 (fēn - minute)

Saying a date:

In Chinese, the following pattern is followed. The year goes first, then the month, then the day. If you know much about Chinese then you'll know this is a general pattern to follow least specific to most specific.

year + 年（nián） / number of month + 月（yuè） / number of day 日（rì）

Examples: