How to Say Year, Month, Date in Mandarin Chinese

How to say Year, Month and Date in Mandarin Chinese? Are they very different from their equivalents in English? Are they difficult? These are common questions Chinese learners ask.

First of all, year, month and date are easy in Mandarin Chinese

If one knows the basic numbers in Chinese, she or he can easily conjugate weekdays by adding 星期(xīng qī ) in front the numbers.

To describe year, month and date in Chinese, we first need to learn 3 words as follows:

Year      年  nián
Month  月  yuè
Date     号   hào

Conjugation of  Year, Month and Date in Chinese

Different from the conjugation of weekdays in Chinese which puts 星期(xīng qī ) in front the numbers, years, months and dates are all conjugated by adding the measure words,  年(nián ), 月(yuè) and 号（hào）at the end.

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

…

How to Say Months in Chinese

The 12 months in Chinese are:

一月     yī yuè
二月     èr yuè
三月     sān yuè
四月     sì yuè
五月     wǔ yuè
六月     liù yuè
七月     qī yuè
八月     bā yuè
九月     jiǔ yuè
十月     shí yuè
十一月 shí yī yuè
十二月 shí èr yuè

The Montessori version of these flashcards are available in our shop. 

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

See, learning the years, months and dates is easy.

What to Learn How to Say Weekdays in Chinese?

• • Learn Chinese Vocabulary – Months and Weekdays
  • Months-Weekdays Montessori 3-Part Chinese Flashcards

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Are you ready to learn Chinese numbers? Here are some resources:

My Chinese Number Booklet – it is a reference booklet featuring different uses of numbers in Chinese
Numbers 1-10 in Chinese Practice Workbook – it is a great workbook for kids to practice writing the Chinese numbers 1-10 and counting the numbers.

You May Also Be Interested:

• • Chinese4kids Membership – a portal for busy Chinese teachers and parents
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  • Speak Chinese with Kids Course