Date (Year)
Date and time is always written from the biggest to the smallest:
year - month - date - a day of the week - the time of day - hours - minutes.
How to say year in Chinese
To communicate years in Chinese we first need to learn the word 年 
, which is the word “year” in Chinese.
In Chinese the numbers of the years are read separately, one by one.
, which is the word “year” in Chinese.
In Chinese the numbers of the years are read separately, one by one. Pay attention
2 is read as 二 .
0 is written either as 零 or 〇 .
.
0 is written either as 零 or 〇 .Examples
1986年
year 1986
yī jiǔ bā liù nián
二〇一五年
year 2015
èr líng yī wǔ nián
To state a year such as the year 2000, 3000, etc., you can simply read as 二千 , 三千 .
, 三千 . Pay attention
It is possible to say only the last two numbers of the year if it is clear what century is being talked about. For instance, we can just say the 90th instead of 1990.
In addition, to indicate the year, you can use the following phrases:
前年
去年
今年
明年
后年
Sometimes it can be used:
大前年
大后年
去年
今年
明年
后年
Sometimes it can be used:
大前年
大后年 How to ask “What year….?” in Chinese
In order to ask about a specific year, you have to use the following word combination: 哪一年 .
There are some rare cases when 一 can be excluded.
.
There are some rare cases when 一 can be excluded.Examples
你哪一年出生？
What year were you born?
nǐ nǎ yì nián chūshēng
The measure word does not have to be used if we speak about a number of years.
Examples
三年
three years
sān nián
二十年
twenty years
èrshí nián
When we speak about age, we use the word 岁 . The word 年 can't be used.
. The word 年 can't be used.Examples
我十八岁
I am eighteen years old
wǒ shíbā suì
他16岁读完中学
He finished middle school at the age of 16
tā shíliù suì dúwán zhōngxué
Era and century
In order to state an era, the phrases 公元 and 公元前 before the numeral adjective.
and 公元前 before the numeral adjective.Examples
公元前三年
3 B.C.
gōngyuán qián sān nián
公元三年
3 A.D.
gōngyuán sān nián
To say the word “century”, you have to use the word 世纪 after the number of the century.
after the number of the century. Pay attention
The numeral adjective is pronounced as a common number, not one by one.
Examples
20世纪
20th century
èrshí shìjì
19世纪
19th century
shíjiǔ shìjì