Telling time in Chinese: the clock, days of the week and months

October 3, 2026 · 6 min read

Telling time in Chinese is simple: numbers plus a handful of words. If you know the numbers up to twelve, you can already say the month, the day of the week and the hour; you only need to learn which word goes where. One rule covers it all: from the biggest unit to the smallest.

The order: from big to small

In English you say "at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 2". Chinese goes the other way round: first the year, then the month, the date, the day of the week, the part of the day, and the hour at the very end.

• 今天十月二号星期五jīntiānshíyuèèrhào,xīngqīwǔToday is Friday, October 2.

And the time goes before the verb, not after it: not "I eat breakfast at eight" but "I at eight eat breakfast".

What time is it in Chinese

• 点diǎno’clock
• 分fēnminute (on the clock)
• 半bànhalf
• 现在xiànzàinow

The hour is a number plus 点: 八点, "eight o'clock". Minutes are a number plus 分: 八点十分, "eight ten". Half past is 半: 八点半, "eight thirty". To ask the time, say 现在几点 xiànzàijǐdiǎn — what time is it?. There's also 刻 kè — quarter of an hour, like English "a quarter past": 八点一刻 is "a quarter past eight".

• 我八点吃早饭wǒbādiǎnchīzǎofànI have breakfast at eight.
• 我九点上班六点下班wǒjiǔdiǎnshàngbān,liùdiǎnxiàbānI start work at nine and finish at six.
• 你几点起床？nǐjǐdiǎnqǐchuángWhat time do you get up?

Morning, afternoon and evening

The part of the day goes before the hour: "evening eight o'clock" is 8 p.m. It does the job of English a.m. and p.m., so you won't mix up morning and evening without the 24-hour clock.

• 早上zǎoshangearly morning
• 上午shàngwǔmorning, a.m.
• 中午zhōngwǔnoon, midday
• 下午xiàwǔafternoon, p.m.
• 晚上wǎnshangevening, night

• 我们晚上八点吃晚饭wǒmenwǎnshangbādiǎnchīwǎnfànWe have dinner at eight in the evening.

Days of the week in Chinese

You barely need to learn the days of the week: it's the word 星期, "week", plus the number of the day. Monday is 星期一, "week-one", Tuesday 星期二, and so on up to Saturday, 星期六. The Chinese week starts on Monday. Only Sunday has no number: 星期天, or in writing 星期日.

• 星期xīngqīweek
• 星期一xīngqīyīMonday
• 星期二xīngqī’èrTuesday
• 星期三xīngqīsānWednesday
• 星期四xīngqīsìThursday
• 星期五xīngqīwǔFriday
• 星期六xīngqīliùSaturday
• 星期天xīngqītiānSunday

• 今天星期几？jīntiānxīngqījǐWhat day is it today?
• 我们星期六下午见吧wǒmenxīngqīliùxiàwǔjiànbaLet’s meet on Saturday afternoon.

Months and dates

A month is a number plus 月, "moon, month": January is 一月, "month one", October 十月, December 十二月. No names to memorize. The day of the month is a number plus 号 in speech or 日 in writing. To ask "what's the date?", you use the same words with 几, "how many".

• 今天几月几号？jīntiānjǐyuèjǐhàoWhat’s the date today?
• 今天十月二号jīntiānshíyuèèrhàoToday is October 2.

Years

A year is read digit by digit, like a phone number, plus 年: 2026 is "two-zero-two-six year", not "twenty twenty-six". Three more words come in handy right away: 今年 jīnnián — this year, 明年 míngnián — next year, 去年 qùnián — last year.

• 今年是二零二六年jīnniánshìèrlíngèrliùniánThis year is 2026.

How to remember it

Say in Chinese what you see every day: the time on the clock, the date on your phone, the day of the week. The core words of this article are on the HSK 1 word list, and how the numbers themselves are read is in the guide to Chinese numbers.