Beginner Lesson 15.1 – Days of the Week

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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 weekzhōu 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 /+ 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

is
xīngqīwǔ
星期五
Friday
 VERB. 
16 Comments
Collapse Comments
Andrew RobertsPremium Student April 30, 2023 at 10:03 am

Is it more common to use 星期 or 周?

andrulewiczPremium Student August 26, 2020 at 7:33 am

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。

ChineseFor.UsAcademic Team September 2, 2020 at 2:08 pm

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。

mianbaoPremium Student June 12, 2020 at 4:23 pm

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!

ChineseFor.UsAcademic Team June 12, 2020 at 7:04 pm

Please refer to Sentence Word Order in Chinese in Lesson 8.1

Mohammed HassanPremium Student December 20, 2020 at 8:16 am

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”.

hailePremium Student April 23, 2020 at 4:38 pm

Hi Lili, does it mean we can say in both ways: 今天星期一 and 今天是星期一?

AdrianjacrzPremium Student June 24, 2018 at 8:29 pm

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.

ChineseFor.UsAcademic Team August 2, 2022 at 5:40 am

As mentioned in Grammar 4, the following two sentences are both correct:

  • 今天星期五。
  • 今天是星期五。

Therefore, these following two sentences are also both correct:

  • 明天是星期天。
  • 明天星期天。
MoritzPremium Student January 5, 2018 at 3:35 am

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.

AustinPremium Student January 2, 2018 at 5:53 pm

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.

ireonPremium Student October 20, 2017 at 7:01 pm

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.

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