How to Say Days of the Week in Chinese Mandarin?

There are 3 ways to say ​7 Days of the week in Chinese Mandarin. You only need to remember one or two words at the front of the sentence – 星期 Xīngqí, 礼拜 Lǐbài, 周 Zhōu, followed by the numbers 1 to 6 according to the days of the week.

We do not use the number 7 (七) for Sunday in Mandarin as it has other names to say it – 星期 / 礼拜(x)天 Tiān, 星期 / 礼拜(x)日 Rì. The set of words used to say days of the week in Mandarin depend on the country, city or the environment that you are going.

3 Ways to Say Days of the Week in Chinese

星期 Xīngqí is deemed as a more standard way to say Days of the Week in Chinese  Mandarin as compared to 周 Zhōu which is more casual and used in spoken Mandarin in many parts of China.

• 周 Zhōu

• 星期 Xīngqí

•  礼拜 Lǐbài

Brief Origin of 礼拜 Lǐbài

The third method of saying Days of the Week in Chinese is 礼拜 Lǐbài. It was introduced by Christianity and Islam. The first day of the week starts on a Sunday instead of a Monday according to their calendar.

Christians advocate freedom and believe that they should rest first before working. Hence, Sunday becomes the first day followed by the working days. Another class of theory is the resurrection of Jesus Christ on a Sunday after the crucifixion on Friday. Therefore, Sunday is a day of commemoration.

In spite of the religious initiation, there is absolutely no spiritual connotation for people who use the term 礼拜 Lǐbài in modern time. The Fujian province and its dialect, Hokkien, use the term 礼拜 to say the Days of the Week in Chinese.

Sometimes, you may hear some contraction words like 拜一, 拜二 instead of 礼拜一, 礼拜二. Well, they mean the same thing. For Sunday, we still call it as 礼拜天 Lǐbài tiān with no contraction. To say 拜天 Bài tiān is wrong.

How to Say Weekday and Weekend in Chinese?

Weekday in Chinese is 平日 Píngrì. We can also say it as 工作日 Gōngzuò rì which means “Working Days”. Weekend in Chinese is 周末 Zhōumò. The terms for weekday and weekend are the same across the three categories of Days of the week in Chinese above.

How to Say Different Period of the Week in Chinese?

A lot of brackets are seen here. It means that the Chinese phrase can do with or without the word in the bracket for Days of the Week in Chinese. Personally, I would use the measure word 个 gè for all the illustrations below. We say the same way in year and month too.

Days of the Week in Mandarin Sentences

Here are some examples of Days of the Week in Mandarin sentences from 星期 Xīngqí, 礼拜 Lǐbài and 周 Zhōu. They are all interchangeable.

How to Say Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow in Chinese?

Here is another way to describe 7 Days of the Week in Chinese with a useful deployment of the terms in the Chinese essay below.

Chinese Essay: Camping Activity for 7 Days of the Week in Chinese Mandarin

First, you have to assume that today is Thursday, yesterday was Wednesday, tomorrow will be Friday so on and so forth for the Chinese essay.

In general, we position the 7 Chinese words at either one of the placements below which the examples are all illustrated in the essay:-

• At the start of the sentence
• At the start of the subordinate clause
• After the Subject Pronoun

Very rarely do we deploy it at the end of the sentence for Days of the Week in Chinese Mandarin. However, anything is possible due to the flexible sentence construction.

1. Tomorrow is my birthday.
    明天是我的生日。
    Míngtiān shì wǒ de shēngrì.

2. My birthday is tomorrow.
    我的生日在明天。
    Wǒ de shēngrì zài míngtiān.

Tell Me Your Activity for a Week

Now that you have learned how to say the Days of the Week in Chinese Mandarin, you could try and write something as an exercise by making use of all the 7 Chinese words or less. In the following article, you will learn How to Say the Date with Day, Month and Year.