Mandarin Vocabulary: Days of the Week
Written by: Sophie
Sophie Zhang is from Liaoning Province in northern China. She earned her masters degree in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Xihua University in 2013. She is currently a classroom English teacher and online Mandarin Teacher. She has her own English classroom in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Sophie adores teaching both English and Mandarin. She prefers making her own lessons depending on the needs and level of each student. She always gives her students enough chance to speak up so that they may develop their confidence in speaking. Learning Mandarin is becoming a trend all over the world. Online Mandarin learning is great fun and very challenging. Let Sophie help you or your child learn Mandarin in her exciting and interactive online classroom!











The basics
Most of the Chinese days of the week are numbered. Monday to Saturday are made up of the word 星期 xīng qī (day of the week) + numbers 1 – 6.
Sunday is the exception, being 星期xīngqī+天tiān(sky) or 日rì (sun).
To ask what day it is, you literally ask: “Today is which number of the week?”
“今天星期几?” = jīn tiān xīng qī jǐ ? = What day is it today?
Expressions of time do not need additional prepositions such as on or in.
For example, the phrase on Mondays is expressed in Chinese as simply 星期一 xīng qī yī :
我星期一打篮球。 wǒ xīng qī yī dǎ lán qiú 。I play basketball on Mondays.
她通常星期四下午游泳。 tā tōng cháng xīng qī sì xià wǔ yóu yǒng 。 She usually swims on Thursday afternoons.
Make a sentence in the comments below to say which day it is today!

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