Days of the Week
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. There are no special words in Chinese for the days of the week. They are all based on a simple numerical sequence. Let's look at them.
HSK 1new HSK 1Adverbial modifiers of time
How to name the days of the week
There are two words which mean “week” in Chinese: and . Therefore, there are two options to express the days of the week. The first option is:
Scheme
星期
day number from 1-6
Pay attention
In Chinese, the numbering of days starts with Monday as the first day.
Examples
星期一
Monday
xīngqīyī
星期五
Friday
xīngqīwǔ
星期六
Saturday
xīngqīliù
Pay attention
The exception is the word Sunday, where 天 or 日 both mean “day” and are used instead of a number: or .
The second option to express the day of the week:
Scheme
周
day number from 1-6
Examples
周一
Monday
zhōuyī
周五
Friday
zhōuwǔ
Pay attention
With this option, there is only one way to say Sunday — it’s . We cannot say 周天.
When we count the number of weeks, we must put the measure word before 星期 and after 周.
Pay attention
In colloquial speech we can omit the measure word 个 before 星期 .
Examples
一周
one week
yì zhōu
一个星期
one week
yí ge xīngqī
这(个)星期一
this Monday
zhè (ge) xīngqīyī
How to use the verb 是 when saying days of the week
When you want to indicate the day of the week, the verb can be used optionally.
Examples
今天是星期五
Today is Friday
jīntiān shì xīngqīwǔ
明天周六吗？
Is tomorrow Saturday?
míngtiān zhōuliù ma
However, in a negative sentence you must use the verb 是 . To make a negation, we use .
Examples
3月4号不是星期二
March 4th is not Tuesday
sān yuè sì hào bú shì xīngqī'èr
How to ask “what day of the week?”
To ask the question, we should use the interrogative word instead of a numeral:
Examples
你星期几不工作？
What day of the week do you not work?
nǐ xīngqī jǐ bù gōngzuò
Learn more
Measure wordsDate (date and month)The position of words indicating time
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