HSK 1 · Lesson 6今天几号？ What’s the date today?
Dates, days of the week, birthdays. The order “year — month — day”.
Dialogues
A birthday
New words
- 年niányear; grain; harvest (old)
- 月yuèmoon; month; monthly
- 日rìsun; day; day of the month
- 号hàoto call out; to command; bugle; trumpet
- 星期xīngqīweek; day of the week; Sunday
- 星期天xīngqītiānSunday
- 星期日xīngqīrìSunday
- 今天jīntiāntoday; the present time; now
- 明天míngtiāntomorrow
- 昨天zuótiānyesterday
- 生日shēngrìbirthday
- 去年qùniánlast year
- 明年míngniánnext year
- 后天hòutiānthe day after tomorrow
- 前天qiántiānthe day before yesterday
Grammar
1. Dates: from big to small
year + 月 + day + 号 + weekday
2026年10月18号 is 18 October 2026. Years are read digit by digit: 二〇二六年 èr líng èr liù nián. Months are number + 月: 一月 January … 十二月 December. In speech 号, in writing usually 日.
2. Weekdays — 星期 + number
Monday is 星期一, Tuesday 星期二 … Saturday 星期六. Sunday is 星期天 (spoken) or 星期日 (written). “Which day?” — 星期几？
3. No 是 with dates and age
With dates, weekdays, age and prices 是 is usually omitted: 今天星期一 “today is Monday”. In the negative it comes back: 今天不是星期一.
Exercises
1. Write the date in Chinese
- January 1st
Answer
一月一号 - December 25th, 2025
Answer
二〇二五年十二月二十五号 - Friday
Answer
星期五
2. Answer about yourself
- 你的生日是几月几号？
Answer
E.g. 我的生日是三月八号。 - 今天星期几？
Answer
E.g. 今天星期二。
💡 Did you know?: Lunar-calendar festivals
The biggest holiday is the lunar New Year, 春节 “Spring Festival”, between 21 January and 20 February. Older people often celebrate birthdays by the lunar calendar too.
Phrase audio — Microsoft speech synthesis (voices Xiaoxiao, Yunyang, Yunxi); syllables and some words — native recordings (audio-cmn, CC BY-SA).