Beginner Lesson 13.1 – Date and Birthday
Date In Chinese With Year, Month And Day | Birthday In Chinese
Learn how to tell date in Chinese and say your birthday in Chinese. Be able to tell the year, month, and day in Chinese.
- Year, month and day in Chinese: 年 月 日
- Ask and tell date in Chinese
- Ask and tell Birthday in Chinese
VOCABULARY
GRAMMAR
Grammar 1: Date in Chinese · HSK 1/2
__nián__yuè__rì __年__月__日 __year__month__day
__nián__yuè__hào __年__月__号 __year__month__day
When telling date in Chinese, we say the year first, then the month, and then the day. Year, month and day in Chinese are nián 年, yuè 月, rì 日 / hào 号. So for "day", there are two ways to say it: 日 and 号. 日 is more of written language. For example, April 26 2017 can be written as the following in Chinese
- 2017年4月26日
- 2017年4月26号
- 二零一七年四月二十六日
- 二零一七年四月二十六号
Grammar 2: Ask Date in Chinese · HSK 1
jǐjǐ nián jǐ yuè jǐ rì 几几年几月几日 what year what month what day
jǐjǐ nián jǐ yuè jǐ hào 几几年几月几号 what year what month what day
Since dates are written with numbers, when asking about date in Chinese, we need to use the Question Word 几, which can be used to ask questions regarding uncertain numbers.
Grammar 3: Ask and Answer Birthday in Chinese · HSK 2
shēngrì 生日 birthday
生 means "to give birth" in Chinese. 日 means "day" in Chinese. "生日" together means birthday in Chinese. Example of asking and answer birthday in Chinese:
Q: nǐde shēngrì shì jǐjǐnián jǐyuè jǐrì 你的生日是几几年几月几日？ what date is your birthday A: wǒde shēngrì shì yījiǔbāqīnián sìyuè 'èrshíliùrì 我的生日是一九八七年四月二十六日。 my birthday is 1987, April 26
Q: nǐde shēngrì shì jǐjǐnián jǐyuè jǐhào 你的生日是几几年几月几号？ what date is your birthday A: wǒde shēngrì shì yījiǔbāqīnián sìyuè 'èrshíliùhào 我的生日是一九八七年四月二十六号。 my birthday is 1987, April 26
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Lili, could you tell me Why do I have to use 2 几 in “几几年” but only 1几 in “几月几日” when talking about my birthday?
Hi Ha Dang, great question!
The difference comes from how we read these numbers in Chinese.
Years are read digit by digit. For example, 1995 is 一九九五年 (yī jiǔ jiǔ wǔ nián), not “one thousand nine hundred ninety-five.” In everyday speech, people often say only the last two digits, like 九五年 for ’95. So when we ask about the year, each 几 stands in for one unknown digit: 几几年 is like asking “nineteen-what-what?”
Months and days are read as whole numbers. December is 十二月 (month twelve), and the 25th is 二十五日 (day twenty-five). We don’t say them digit by digit, so a single 几 replaces the entire number, even when that number has two digits: 几月几日.
So:
你是几几年出生的？ → 我是九五年出生的。
你的生日是几月几日？ → 我的生日是十二月二十五日。
Hope this helps!
When I am not asking for the year, but only the month and day. Do I still use jí jǐ ? Example: 谢老师的生日是几几月几号？ vs. 谢老师的生日是几月几号？ Also, should I replace ? with 吗.
“谢老师的生日是几月几号？” would be the correct way to ask.
Dear Lili,
In “几几年” do I need to regard the tone change rule and make it jí jǐ? I am not sure about it because it’s not two syllables of one word but two separated words with third tone.
Regards from Germany (Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland)
Michael
Yes the first Third Tone changes into the Second Tone. Please refer to these two lessons:
(1) The Third Tone – Two Third Tones Together
(2) The Third Tone – Three Third Tones in a Row
can you explain why to ask nian, must have ji ji nian?
Because when asking date in Chinese “几年 jǐ nián ” means “how many years” instead of “which year”.
我的生日是1994年12月31日。
November 31st doesn´t exist:)
Why not say – nǐ de shēngrì shì shénme shíhou？?
You said that 几年 means “how many years” and not “which year” and that’s why we need to write 几几年 when asking about a person’s year of birth. But would it not be the same with the month, would 几月 not mean “how many months” instead of “which month”? Because we use only one 几 when we ask about a person’s month of birth.
Best regards and thanks for this great learning platform, Melanie
老师，why isn’t it possible to use 吗? Something like 你的生日是吗?
I think that 吗 is supposed to be used in yes and no questions.
Is there any difference between 号 and 日?
See the first answer in this discussion: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/12058/what-is-the-difference-between-%E6%97%A5-and-%E5%8F%B7
They say telling dates is easy, but how do you teach a beginner how to tell dates using the rule?
Lili, I see that other students have pointed out that there is no November 31st. I came to the comments to specifically say that I think you knew full well that there is no November 31st and you were being playful. I base this theory on the playful little smile you got in the video as you said November 31st. Doesn’t matter if I’m right – I just enjoy thinking that you did this on purpose because it amused you! 🙂
How do I say October 18
Is there a shorter way of asking someone their birthday? “你的生日是几几年几月几号？” is really long!
lol, I thought exactly the same. But it’s one of those things that make this language so beautiful and interesting.
oops – there’s no November 31.
Lili, November never has more than 30 days, so November 31 in the video is an impossible date!
我的生日是十一月三十一日