Time and Days

Time-related characters are essential for daily life — scheduling, making plans, and understanding calendars. Chinese expresses time in a logical, hierarchical way: from largest unit (year) to smallest (minute).

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Time Period Characters

Character	Pinyin	Meaning	Stroke Count	Example Word
年	nián	year	6	今年 (jīn nián) — this year
月	yuè	month/moon	4	一月 (yī yuè) — January
日	rì	day/sun	4	生日 (shēng rì) — birthday
时	shí	hour/time	7	小时 (xiǎo shí) — hour
分	fēn	minute	4	十分 (shí fēn) — ten minutes
秒	miǎo	second	9	秒钟 (miǎo zhōng) — second

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Relative Time Words

Character	Pinyin	Meaning	Stroke Count	Example Word
今	jīn	now/present	4	今天 (jīn tiān) — today
明	míng	bright/next	8	明天 (míng tiān) — tomorrow
昨	zuó	yesterday	9	昨天 (zuó tiān) — yesterday
前	qián	before/front	9	前天 (qián tiān) — day before yesterday
后	hòu	after/behind	6	后天 (hòu tiān) — day after tomorrow
每	měi	every	7	每天 (měi tiān) — every day

Time Reference Table

Chinese	Pinyin	English
前天	qián tiān	day before yesterday
昨天	zuó tiān	yesterday
今天	jīn tiān	today
明天	míng tiān	tomorrow
后天	hòu tiān	day after tomorrow
去年	qù nián	last year
今年	jīn nián	this year
明年	míng nián	next year
上个月	shàng gè yuè	last month
这个月	zhè gè yuè	this month
下个月	xià gè yuè	next month

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Days of the Week

Chinese uses a beautifully logical system for days of the week. 星期 (xīng qī) means "week" (literally "star period"), and you simply add the numbers 1–6, with Sunday being special:

Day	Chinese	Pinyin	Literal Meaning
Monday	星期一	xīng qī yī	Week-one
Tuesday	星期二	xīng qī èr	Week-two
Wednesday	星期三	xīng qī sān	Week-three
Thursday	星期四	xīng qī sì	Week-four
Friday	星期五	xīng qī wǔ	Week-five
Saturday	星期六	xīng qī liù	Week-six
Sunday	星期日/天	xīng qī rì/tiān	Week-sun/day

Tip: You can also use 周 (zhōu) instead of 星期. So Monday can be 周一 (zhōu yī). This is more common in written Chinese.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning	Stroke Count	Example Word
星	xīng	star	9	星期 (xīng qī) — week
期	qī	period	12	日期 (rì qī) — date
周	zhōu	week/cycle	8	周末 (zhōu mò) — weekend

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Parts of the Day