Lesson 7
Are you ready to learn how to talk about time and dates in Chinese? If you’ve already learnt numbers in Chinese, let’s go!
Time
| 现在 | xiàn zài | now |
| 几 | jǐ | how many |
| 点 | diǎn | o’clock |
| 分 | fēn | minute (of time) |
| 半 | bàn | half |
| 刻 | kè | quarter of an hour |
| 上午 | shàng wǔ | morning |
| 下午 | xià wǔ | afternoon/evening |
Telling Time
Hours
For telling the hours, simply say the hour followed by the character “点” (diǎn), which means “o’clock”. For example:
- 五点 (wǔ diǎn) – 5 o’clock
- 八点 (bā diǎn) – 8 o’clock
Minutes
To tell the minutes, simply say the number of minutes followed by the character “分” (fēn), which means “minutes”. For example:
- 三十五分 (sān shí wǔ fēn) – 35 minutes
- 十二分 (shí èr fēn) – 12 minutes
If you want to say a specific minute within the hour, you can say the hour, followed by the character “点”, followed by the minute. When saying the time, the minute word “分” is optional for any time over 10 minutes. If you’d like to omit it from any time under ten minutes, like 6:05, simply add “零” before the minutes (for the “0” in “05”). For example:
- 五点三十(分) (wǔ diǎn sān shí fēn) – 5:30
- 六点五分 or 六点零五 (liù diǎn wǔ fēn) or (liù diǎn líng wǔ) – 6:05
There are specific words you can use for “half an hour” and “quarter of an hour”, these are 半 and 刻 respectively. For example:
- 十点半 (shí diǎn bàn) – half past ten (10:30)
- 两点一刻 (liǎng diǎn yī kè) – quarter past two (2:15)
A.M. vs P.M.
In Chinese, the 12-hour clock system is commonly used. To indicate if it’s morning or afternoon/evening, the terms “上午” (shàng wǔ) and “下午” (xià wǔ) are used.
In general, “上午” (shàng wǔ) is used to refer to the time from midnight until noon (12:00 p.m.), and “下午” (xià wǔ) is used for the time from noon (12:00 p.m.) until midnight. For example:
- 早上九点 (zǎo shàng jiǔ diǎn) – 9:00 a.m.
- 下午三点半 (xià wǔ sān diǎn bàn) – 3:30 p.m.
Days
| 日期 | rì qī | dates |
| 年 | nián | year |
| 月 | yuè | month |
| 号 | hào | date (casual) |
| 日 | rì | date (formal); day |
| 今天 | jīn tiān | today |
| 明天 | míng tiān | tomorrow |
| 后天 | hòu tiān | the day after tomorrow |
| 昨天 | zuó tiān | yesterday |
| 前天 | qián tiān | the day before yesterday |
Dates in Chinese
Ordinal numbers, such as “first” or “second”, are commonly used in English to express dates, but in Chinese, cardinal numbers are always used. Another important thing to note is that Chinese dates always start from year then month then day. You will find that the pattern of starting from the largest (in this case largest time period) is used in other aspects of Chinese (like writing addresses).
To state the date and month in Chinese, you must be familiar with all the cardinal numbers from one to thirty-one. If you have already completed Lesson 5, this should be easy for you. All you have to follow is this simple formula:
年 (nián) + 月 (yuè) + 日 (rì) / 号(hào)
For example: 2023年4月14日 means 14th April 2023.
In spoken Chinese, 日is often replaced with 号 because it is more casual.
You might be concerned about reading that date aloud because you’ve not yet learnt to say numbers in the thousands, but, the good news is, you don’t need to! In Chinese, we read each digit out for the year. For example:
2023 = 二零二三年
èr líng èr sān nián
Literally, “two zero two three year”
What date is today?
The question “What date is today?” in Chinese is “今天几号？” (Jīntiān jǐ hào?)
We can answer in the form: 今天是四月十四号。(Jīntiān sìyuè shísì hào.)
The verb “be” – 是 (shì) in this sentence is optional and is often omitted in spoken Chinese. So, you could also answer by saying: 今天四月十四号(Jīntiān sìyuè shísì hào) or 今天十四号 (Jīntiān shísì hào).
Key Expressions
| 现在几点？ | Xiànzài jǐdiǎn? | What time is it now? |
| 现在十点半。 | Xiànzài shí diǎn bàn. | It’s ten thirty. |
| 今天几号？ | Jīntiān jǐ hào? | What date is today? |
| 今天十月二十九号。 | Jīntiān shíyuè èrshíjiǔ hào. | Today is October 29. |
| 明天是几号？ | Míngtiān shì jǐ hào? | What’s tomorrow’s date? |
| 明天是一月三号。 | Míngtiān shì yīyuè sān hào. | Tomorrow is January 3. |
| 今天星期几？ | Jīntiān xīngqī jǐ? | What day is today? |
| 今天星期二。 | Jīntiān xīngqīèr. | Today is Tuesday. |
| 今天四月十四号，星期五。 | Jīntiān sìyuè shísì hào, xīngqīwǔ. | Today is Friday, April 14. |
What you’ve learnt
You’ve learnt how to tell time in Chinese and learnt to talk about different days and dates. Keep practicing those key expressions. Then, when you’re ready, try replacing the information with different times and dates.
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