Time and date are closely related to our daily life. If we want to make a plan about our life, we should use specific time and date to form the plan. In the same sense, when foreigners study Chinese in China, they should know how to express time and date in Chinese.

During the process that learners study in China, they may find that we express the year by adding the character “年” to four figures. When we read, the four figures expressing the name of year are read as four separate characters then “年” is placed at the end. Here are some examples: 一九九八年、二000年、二00二年、二0一0年.

After learning the way of expressing the year, we will show students how to describe the months when they learn Mandarin. When we express the whole twelve months, we should combine the cardinal numbers from 1 to 12 with the character “月”, which means “month”.

In order to help students understand clearly when they learn Chinese in China, all the twelve months are listed in the following to show how to express:
“一月” for January, “二月” for February, “三月” for March, “四月” for April, “五月” for May, “六月” for June, “七月” is July, “八月” is August, “九月” is September, “十月” is October. We express November by “十一月” and December by “十二月”.

After learning the expression for year and month, we should know how to express the date. Students who attend to one-on-one Chinese learning programs know that the names of the dates are combined with cardinal numbers from 1 to 30 or 31 and the character “号” or “日”. Some given typical examples are: (二月)六号—February 6, （十月）十二号—October 12, （十一月）二十二日—November 22, （十二月）三十一日—December 31.

One point will be illustrated by teachers in Chinese learning programs is the difference between “日” and “号”. Generally speaking, the one with “号” is the spoken form of expressing the date while “日” is the written form. When we talk about the date of the current month, we can just simply say “…号” or “…日” by omitting the character “月”.

Last but not least, if we want to learn all about the expressions about time and date, we need to know how to express the days of a week. Some foreigners who come to China to learn Chinese may know that it is the same to combine cardinal numbers with “星期”. But they should know that even the way of saying from Monday to Saturday is the same, Sunday is different. The name for Sunday is the combination of “星期” and “天”, the spoken form or “日”, the written form.

Among the various forms for date and time, only the form of expressing days places the cardinal numbers before the characters. When you learn Mandarin Chinese, you should know the followings forms of the whole seven days: 星期一: Monday; 星期二: Tuesday; 星期三: Wednesday; 星期四: Thursday; 星期五: Friday; 星期六: Saturday and 星期天(日) is Sunday.

All mentioned above are the basic expressions for the date and days of the week, including the year, month, date and days of a week. All of them are necessary for learners to master when they study Mandarin Chinese because their daily life is closely involved.

But it is not enough to know about the separate expressions about time. Some students who intend to attend to HSK preparation program in China may ask how to describe a completed date including year, month, date and days of a week. The word order for expressing the date and days should be “年+月+日+星期”. Accordingly, two forms of expressions are produced like “二0一一年十一月二十三日星期三” and “2011年11月23日星期三”.

The word order is easy to remember after learning. However, learners should spend more time in remembering the specific month and days of a week.