Beginner Lesson 15.1 – Days of the Week
Days Of The Week In Chinese | Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow In Chinese
Learn how to say 7 days of the week in Chinese. Be able to say today, yesterday, tomorrow in Chinese and understand what is the Predicate in Chinese.
- Week in Chinese: 星期 周
- 7 Days of the Week in Chinese
- Today, yesterday, tomorrow in Chinese: 今天 昨天 明天
- Predicate in Chinese sentences
- Nouns as Predicate in Chinese sentences
VOCABULARY
GRAMMAR
Grammar 1: Days of the Week in Chinese · HSK 1
xīngqī 星期 week | zhōu 周 week
There are two ways to say week in Chinese: 星期 and 周. So there are also two sets of ways to name the days of the week in Chinese. Generally, the format is like this:
星期 / 周 + number
But with Sunday, it's 星期天, 星期日 or 周日.
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
| xīngqīyī 星期一 |
xīngqī'èr 星期二 |
xīngqīsan 星期三 |
xīngqīsì 星期四 |
xīngqīwǔ 星期五 |
xīngqīliù 星期六 |
xīngqītiān 星期天 xīngqīrì 星期日 |
| zhōuyī 周一 |
zhōu'èr 周二 |
zhōusan 周三 |
zhōusì 周四 |
zhōuwǔ 周五 |
zhōuliù 周六 |
zhōurì 周日 |
| MON | xīngqīyī 星期一 |
zhōuyī 周一 |
| TUE | xīngqī'èr 星期二 |
zhōu'èr 周二 |
| WED | xīngqīsan 星期三 |
zhōusan 周三 |
| THU | xīngqīsì 星期四 |
zhōusì 周四 |
| FRI | xīngqīwǔ 星期五 |
zhōuwǔ 周五 |
| SAT | xīngqīliù 星期六 |
zhōuliù 周六 |
| SUN | xīngqītiān 星期天 xīngqīrì 星期日 |
zhōurì 周日 |
Grammar 2: Ask and Answer Days of the Week in Chinese · HSK 1
The Question Word 几 is used when asking what day of the week it is. We can say "xīngqī jǐ 星期几" or "zhōu jǐ 周几". 几 means "what number; which number". For example,
Q: jīntiān xīngqī jǐ
今天星期几？
what day of the week is it today
A: jīntiān xīngqīliù
今天星期六。
today is Saturday
Q: jīntiān zhōujǐ
今天周几？
what day of the week is it today
A: jīntiān zhōurì
今天周日。
today is Sunday
Grammar 3: Predicate in Chinese Sentences· HSK 1
In Chinese the main structure of a sentences usually has two parts: zhǔyǔ 主语 The Subject and wèiyǔ 谓语 The Predicate. The Subject is the "topic" of the sentence; it's the main focus that we talk about in the sentence. And the Predicate explains, discusses or describes the topic. Sometimes there is also the Object, but it is not mandatory in a sentence.
| SUBJECT | PREDICATE | OBJECT |
| the topic | explain/discuss/describe... the topic |
Grammar 4: Nouns as the Predicate in Chinese Sentences· HSK 1
A lot of the times the Predicate in Chinese sentences are verbs, but nouns can also function as the Predicate. This is one of the most important characteristics of the Chinese language. For example:
| SUBJECT | PREDICATE | OBJECT | ||
| 1 | jīntiān 今天 today |
xīngqīwǔ 星期五 Friday |
。 | |
| NOUN. | ||||
| 2 | jīntiān 今天 today |
shì 是 is |
xīngqīwǔ 星期五 Friday |
。 |
| VERB. |
Is there a word list for this course?
Thank you so much for the comment! There is a vocabulary list at the end of the course content table. And here’s a quick link too https://chinesefor.us/lessons/beginner-chinese-vocabulary-list/
Hopefully this helps!
Dear Lili,
Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.
Base on the video, I understood that these two sentences are correct but the part of speech of 星期一 is different in each sentence.
1. 今天星期一。 （ 星期一 here function as predicate)
2. 今天是星期一。( 星期一 here function as object)
And in the same way, can we say 今天是星期几？
Yes we can say 今天星期一 and also 今天是星期一; and “今天是星期几？” is also grammatically correct.
Is it more common to use 星期 or 周？
Thank you for the comprehensive content! We learned in this lesson that there are two formats to say days of the week in Chinese – with and without the verb 是. I would like to know if we can apply this rule when asking / saying dates and time:
你的生日是几月几号？/ 你的生日几月几号？
我的生日是十月四号。/ 我的生日十月四号。
现在是几点？/ 现在几点？
现在是八点。/ 现在八点。
Correct:
你的生日是几月几号？
我的生日是十月四号。
现在几点？
现在八点。
Inappropriate to say:
我的生日十月四号。
你的生日几月几号？
现在是几点？
现在是八点。
你好力力！Thanks for the great lessons. If there a particular grammatical reason that the question word “jǐ” comes before the noun when asking time/age (e.g. 现在几点几分 ? / 你几岁?) but comes after the noun when asking days of the week (e.g. 今天星期几)?
谢谢！
Please refer to Sentence Word Order in Chinese in Lesson 8.1
I think the answer is that “jǐ” comes instead of the number in case of the question.
In a sentence about time you would say for example:” wu dian”, so in the question you would say “ji dian?” same for age (ba sui would be ji sui?).
while in case of days , normally you say “xing qi wu”, so “ji” would come instead of the number again in the question and you say “xing qi ji”.
Hi Lili, does it mean we can say in both ways: 今天星期一 and 今天是星期一?
So, is it ok to say “明天是星期天” (that’s the last phrase you said in the video (min 14:45)) and “明天星期天”?
I was wondering the same thing. I felt it was unclear if both are OK or if you should leave out the 是.
As mentioned in Grammar 4, the following two sentences are both correct:
Therefore, these following two sentences are also both correct:
Is there a rule as when to use zhou instead of xingqi? And can we use zhou in questions, too?
When referring to week in Chinese, 周 and 星期 are interchangeable. 星期 can be a tiny little bit more colloquial than 周, but they are basically the same.
Would 三月八日星期日 also work, with 星期日 replacing 是 as the predicate?
Noun and Noun phrases can be used as Predicate in Chinese sentences, so it’s okay to say both 三月八日星期日 and 三月八日是星期日.
better to say good afternoon rather than good noon, since it is the norm.
In Chinese people do say “xiàwǔ hǎo 下午好 good afternoon” more often than “zhōngwǔ hǎo 中午好 ‘good noon'(literal translation)”. But unlike in English where “good noon” is not a common thing that people say, in Chinese when people hear “zhōngwǔ hǎo 中午好 ‘good noon'”, they usually don’t give a second thought about it. It is a lot more accepted in Chinese.
But since 中午 is only a short period of time around 12pm, this phrase is only used during that period of time.