Expressing dates using 年 (year), 月 (month), and 日/号 (day)
I can say and understand dates in Chinese using year-month-day order
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
今天三月八号。
Today is March 8th.
我一九九八年出生。
I was born in 1998.
会议十月一日。
The meeting is on October 1st.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Chinese dates follow big-to-small order: 年 (nián, year) → 月 (yuè, month) → 日/号 (rì/hào, day).
| Component | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Year | digits + 年 | 2025年 (èr líng èr wǔ nián) |
| Month | number + 月 | 三月 (sān yuè) = March |
| Day | number + 日/号 | 十五日 (shíwǔ rì) = 15th |
| Full date | Y年M月D日 | 2025年三月十五日 |
日 vs 号: 日 (rì) is formal/written, 号 (hào) is spoken/casual. Both mean the same. Months are simply numbered 1-12: 一月 (January) to 十二月 (December).
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesUsed European date order (day-month-year) instead of Chinese (year-month-day)
Chinese dates go big to small: 年 (year) → 月 (month) → 日/号 (day)
Used month names instead of numbers
Chinese months are numbered: 一月 (January), 二月 (February)... 十二月 (December)
今天三月八号。
Today is March 8th.
今天三月八号 (jīntiān sān yuè bā hào) — month before day, no prepositions needed. 号 is casual for day.
我一九九八年出生。
I was born in 1998.
我一九九八年出生 (wǒ yī jiǔ jiǔ bā nián chūshēng) — years are read digit by digit: 1998 = 一九九八.
会议十月一日。
The meeting is on October 1st.
会议十月一日 (huìyì shí yuè yī rì) — October = 十月 (ten-month). 日 is the formal written form for day.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises