Telling Time and Giving Dates

Time and dates in Chinese follow one beautiful rule: you always go from big to small. Year before month, month before day, hour before minute. Once that clicks, both clocks and calendars fall into place. Let's start with the clock.

The hour: 点

To say the hour, you use 点 diǎn, which means "o'clock":

number + 点

• 一点 yì diǎn (one o'clock)
• 三点 sān diǎn (three o'clock)
• 十点 shí diǎn (ten o'clock)

One quirk: for two o'clock, you say 两点 liǎng diǎn, not 二点. This is the 两/二 rule again, since you're talking about "two of something." So the clock uses 两点.

The minutes: 分

For minutes, you add 分 fēn after the hour:

number 点 + number 分

• 三点五分 sān diǎn wǔ fēn (3:05)
• 八点二十分 bā diǎn èr shí fēn (8:20)
• 十点四十五分 shí diǎn sì shí wǔ fēn (10:45)

For minutes under ten, you can include 零 to mark the gap, like 三点零五分 (3:05), the same way you'd say a small number. The 分 at the end can be dropped in casual speech.

Handy time words: 半 and 刻

Two shortcuts make telling time smoother.

半 bàn means "half," so it covers the thirty-minute mark:

• 七点半 qī diǎn bàn (7:30, half past seven)

刻 kè means "a quarter" (fifteen minutes):

• 九点一刻 jiǔ diǎn yí kè (9:15, quarter past nine)
• 九点三刻 jiǔ diǎn sān kè (9:45, three quarters past)

These are common in everyday speech, so they're worth knowing alongside the plain minute form.

Parts of the day

To say morning or afternoon, you put the time-of-day word before the clock time, keeping that big-to-small order:

• 早上 zǎoshang (early morning)

• 上午 shàngwǔ (morning, before noon)

• 中午 zhōngwǔ (noon)

• 下午 xiàwǔ (afternoon)

• 晚上 wǎnshang (evening)

• 早上七点 zǎoshang qī diǎn (7 in the morning)

• 下午三点 xiàwǔ sān diǎn (3 in the afternoon)

• 晚上八点 wǎnshang bā diǎn (8 in the evening)

So the day-part comes first, then the hour. Big to small, always.

Asking the time

To ask what time it is, you use 几 (how many) with 点:

• 现在几点？Xiànzài jǐ diǎn? (What time is it now?)
• 你几点上课？Nǐ jǐ diǎn shàng kè? (What time is your class?)

Dates: year, month, day

Dates follow the exact same big-to-small logic. You give the year, then the month, then the day.

Year is read digit by digit, followed by 年 nián:

• 2025年 = 二零二五年 èr líng èr wǔ nián (read "two zero two five")

You don't say "two thousand twenty-five." You just read each number out loud. That's much easier.

Month is simply the number plus 月 yuè:

• 一月 yī yuè (January)
• 五月 wǔ yuè (May)
• 十二月 shí èr yuè (December)

So the months are just "one month, two month, three month." No new words to memorize.

Day uses the number plus 号 hào in speech, or 日 rì in writing:

• 三号 sān hào (the 3rd)
• 二十五号 èr shí wǔ hào (the 25th)

Put together, a full date reads big to small:

• 2025年5月三号 = 二零二五年五月三号 (May 3rd, 2025)

Days of the week

The week is also number-based, which makes it easy. You take 星期 xīngqī (week) and add the number:

• 星期一 xīngqī yī (Monday)
• 星期二 xīngqī èr (Tuesday)
• 星期五 xīngqī wǔ (Friday)

The one exception is Sunday, which uses 天 tiān or 日 rì instead of a number:

• 星期天 xīngqī tiān (Sunday)

So Monday through Saturday are just "week one" through "week six," then Sunday breaks the pattern. You'll also see 周 zhōu used the same way (周一 for Monday), which is a bit more written.

Asking the date

• 今天几月几号？Jīntiān jǐ yuè jǐ hào? (What's the date today?)
• 今天星期几？Jīntiān xīngqī jǐ? (What day of the week is it?)

Quick recap

Everything runs big to small. For the clock, it's 点 for hours and 分 for minutes, with 半 and 刻 as shortcuts, and 两点 for two o'clock. For dates, read the year digit by digit plus 年, then number plus 月 for the month, then number plus 号 for the day. Days of the week are just 星期 plus a number, with Sunday as the odd one out. Learn the big-to-small habit and you'll never have to think about the order again.