How to talk about days, weeks, months and years in Chinese

When it comes to days, weeks, months, and years, how can you talk about them in Chinese? This post will help you with some useful vocabulary for talking more about time and dates in Chinese.

当遇到日期、周、月和年的时候，你该如何用中文谈论它们呢？本文将提供一些谈论时间和日期的中文实用词汇。

Days

There are two Chinese characters used to represent the word "day":

中文里有两个表示“day”的字：

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 “日” or “天”. For example, “两天(liǎng tiān)” means "two days".

基本上它们是可互换的，因此你可以使用你觉得比较好发音的一个。当你想计算天数时，不必添加另外的数量词，而只需在“日”或“天”的前面加上一个数词。比如，“两天”，意思是“two days”.

Here are some other useful words you'll need for talking about days:

以下还有一些其他谈论日期的必需词语：

the day before yesterday (前天, qián tiān)

yesterday (昨天, zuó tiān)

today (今天, jīn tiān)

tomorrow (明天, míng tiān)

the day after tomorrow (后天, hòu tiān)

Weeks

In order to talk about the days of the week, you first need to learn the Chinese words associated with "week." Just like with the days, there are two words used for "week" in Chinese:

谈论一周里的日期，你需要先学会和“week”相关的中文字词。和“days”一样，中文里也有两个表示“week”的字词：

周, zhōu

星期, xīng qī

The days of the week are really easy as well. See if you can spot the pattern:

一周里的日期也是很简单的，看看你能不能找到规律：

Monday (星期一/周一, xīng qī yī/zhōu yī)

Tuesday (星期二/周二, xīng qī èr/zhōu èr)

Wednesday (星期三/周三, xīng qī sān/zhōu sān)

Thursday (星期四/周四, xīng qī sì/zhōu sì)

Friday (星期五/周五, xīng qī wǔ/zhōu wǔ)

Saturday (星期六/周六, xīng qī liù/zhōu liù)

Sunday (星期天/周天, xīng qī tiān/zhōu tiān; 星期日/周日, xīng qī rì/zhōu rì)

Did you spot the pattern? You just use “周” or “星期” plus the numbers 1-6 for the days Monday-Saturday.

发现规律了吗？你只需将“周”或“星期”加上数字1到6表示周一到周日。

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

那么该如何谈论过去或将来的星期呢？看看一些例子：

2 weeks ago (两个星期前/两周前, liǎng gè xīng qī qián/liǎng zhōu qián)

last week (上个星期/上周, shàng gè xīng qī/shàng zhōu)

this week (这个星期/这周, zhè ge xīng qī/zhè zhōu)

next week (下个星期/下周, xià gè xīng qī/xià zhōu)

2 weeks from now (两个星期后/两周后, liǎng gè xīng qī hòu/liǎng zhōu hòu)

Months

Learning the names of the months in Chinese is so easy! Simply learn the character for "month" (月, yuè) plus the numbers 1-12:

学会月份的中文名称很容易，只需将表示“month”的“月”加上数字1到12.

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)

December (十二月, shí'èr yuè)

Talking about months past or in the future is exactly the same as talking about the weeks.

谈论过去或将来的月份和谈论星期的方式完全一样。

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)

Years

First, you need to know 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 “年”, 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:

首先，你需要知道表示“year”的中文字：“年”。和“days”一样，谈论年份时你不必加上量词，只需在“年”前面加上数字，如“两年”、“十年”等等。当然，还有一些你也可以学习的词汇：

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)

As you may have noticed by now, the format for talking about the days and years are similar, as is the case when talking about the weeks and months. Just remember this, learning these words will help you in your life in China!

或许现在你已经注意到，谈论日期和年份的方式很相似，而谈论星期和月份也是同样的情况。记住一点，学会这些字词对你在中国的生活很有帮助。