The sequence in a time expression

The sequence in a time expression is from the largest unit to the smallest, for example:

去年 三 月 五 号 星期四 晚上 
Qùnián sān yuè wǔ hào xīngqīsì wǎnshang

Time words can appear in one of two positions in the sentence: at the beginning of the sentence (before the subject) or directly after the subject. The structures are:

  • Time + Subject + Verb + Object
    (for example: 今天 晚上 我 做 作业。
    Jīntiān wǎnshang wǒ zuò zuòyè)

  • Subjecct + Time + Verb + Object
    (for example: 我 今天 晚上 做 作业。
    Wǒ jīntiān wǎnshang zuò zuòyè)

Dates are arranged from largest unit to smallest - year, month, day: x 年 + y 月 + z 日. So March 15th, 2022 is:

2022年3月15日 (二 ○ 二 二 年 三 月 十五 日 èr líng èr èr nián sān yuè shíwǔ rì)

The date can be written in either numbers or characters. Attention: “号 hào” is commonly used in spoken Mandarin instead of “日 rì”.

To ask about and give dates 

The date can be asked with the question word “几 jǐ”. When expressing dates, the verb “是 shì” is usually omitted in colloquial Chinese. The word order does not change in the answer.

今天 (是) 几月 几 号? 今天 (是) 星期几?
Jīntiān (shì) jǐ yuè jǐ hào Jīntiān (shì) xīngqī jǐ

The negative answer is formed by adding “不是 bú shì”:

今天 不 是 一 月 二 号。今天 不 是 星期四。
Jīntiān bú shì yī yuè èr hào Jīntiān bú shì xīngqīsì

Last modified: Monday, 3 May 2021, 1:05 PM