By Sheena Dizon Last updated: October 12, 2023

The Complete Guide to Months in Chinese (and the Lunar Calendar)

If you’re a beginner in Chinese, you’ll want to learn how to say the months in Mandarin.

You’ll should also know how to translate dates and related phrases so you can talk about appointments and or describe when something happened.

We’ll cover these important topics, as well as the celebrations during each calendar month and the Chinese lunar calendar in this post.

Contents

• The Calendar Months in Chinese
• Talking About Years in Chinese
• Telling Dates in Chinese
• Months in Chinese: Useful Phrases
• Differences Between the Gregorian and Chinese Lunar Calendars
• • Leap Year vs. Leap Month
  • Chinese Holidays Based on the Lunar Calendar
• The Chinese Lunar Calendar
• And One More Thing...

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The Calendar Months in Chinese

To say the months in Chinese, you only need to know how to count and say 月  (yuè), which means “month.”

For instance, January is literally “one month,” February is “two month” and November is “eleven month.”

Here’s what the Gregorian calendar months are in Chinese, with supplementary details such as national holidays and special Chinese dates.

*National holidays based on the lunar calendar are noted with 2023 dates.

Talking About Years in Chinese

Before we get into how to form years in Chinese, here are a few time terms you’ll need to know first:

• 年 (nián) — year
• 今年 (jīn nián) — this year
• 去年 (qù nián) — last year
• 明年 (míng nián) — next year

Now, to the fun stuff.

When talking about a specific year in Chinese, all you do is read out each digit and attach the word 年 to the end of it. For example:

• 二零零一年 (èr líng líng yī nián) — 2001
• 二零二一年 (èr líng èr yī nián) — 2021
• 一九七三年 (yī jiǔ qī sān nián) — 1973

Unlike in English though, you can’t split up the year into two parts. So while we say 2020 as “twenty-twenty,” in Chinese, it’s always 二零二零年 (èr líng èr líng nián).

But if that’s too much of a mouthful, don’t worry—there is one way you can shorten it, so long as the year is recent.

For example, instead of saying 1973 (一九七三年), you can just say ’73 (七三年).

Here’s a tricky one: try saying the year 2000 in Chinese.

What’d you get?

Well, there are two answers:

二零零零年 (èr líng líng líng nián)

两千年 (liǎng qiān nián)

The second option is shorter but it also means “2,000 years,” not just “the year 2000.” So be sure the context is clear before using it.

Telling Dates in Chinese

Forming specific dates in Chinese is just as simple as learning the months and weeks. Let’s check out the formula now:

Year Number 年 + Month Number 月 + Date Number 号 (hào)

For example:

• 2001年8月11号 (èr líng líng yī nián bā yuè shí yī hào) — August 11, 2001
• 1801年2月16号 (yī bā líng yī nián èr yuè shí liù hào) — February 16, 1801
• 1989年6月9号 (yī jiǔ bā jiǔ nián liù yuè jiǔ hào) — June 9, 1989

Say something happened on a specific date in the current year. In English, you’d simply leave out the year and say it happened on X month, X date (i.e. April 20).

In Chinese, it’s the same!

Let’s say I got married on September 15, 2021, but the year is still 2021. When my friend asks, “When did you get married?”, I’d simply say, “September 15.”

In Chinese, that would be:

九月十五号 (jiǔ yuè shí wǔ hào).

Before moving on, you might’ve noticed that you only pronounce individual digits in the year, not the days.

We already learned that to say 2016, you can’t say 二十十六年 (èr shí shí liù nián).

Instead, you have to say:

二零一六年 (èr líng yī liù nián).

But when it comes to the days of the month, you should say the whole number.

For example:

八月十六号 (bā yuè shí liù hào). (August 16th)

Months in Chinese: Useful Phrases

What if you want to talk about nonspecific dates or ongoing events? Below are some key vocabulary for discussing appointments, past and future events, as well as recurring commitments.

For more information on how to use these phrases and many of the words in this post, you can use the FluentU program. This immersion tool lets you see words in context through Chinese videos, along with other learning tools to make sure you’re not just learning words—you’re also learning how to use them in conversation.

Differences Between the Gregorian and Chinese Lunar Calendars

Let’s talk about the different calendars that China follows:

公历 (gōng lì) — The Gregorian calendar

农历 (nóng lì) — The Chinese lunar calendar

The Gregorian calendar is the calendar most of us are familiar with and is based on Earth’s rotation and revolution around the sun. 

The lunar calendar, meanwhile, is based on the phases of the moon as well as the longitude of the sun.

You might’ve noticed that the dates of the Chinese New Year are different every year. This is because they’re set according to the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.

There are 12 lunar terms and 24 solar terms in one lunar year.

Note: the phrases “lunar term” and “lunar month” are used interchangeably.

Leap Year vs. Leap Month

Every four years is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, where an additional day is included to sync up with the seasonal year.

Because a lunar term or month (29.5 days) is shorter than a Gregorian month, it also has a pattern in place where it re-synchronizes with the seasonal year.

Instead of an additional day every four years, the lunar calendar has an extra term every 32 or 33 months.

Chinese Holidays Based on the Lunar Calendar

While some more modern Chinese holidays are celebrated on the same date every year (like Chinese Father’s Day and Chinese Internet Valentine’s Day), most big national holidays follow the Chinese solar/lunar calendar.

If you’re still confused, there are calendar converters online to help you figure out the dates of past and future holidays.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar

Each lunar term or month has a modern name but can also be referred to in its traditional name (which reflects what plant is in season).

Each month is also assigned an Earthly Branch or an animal from the Chinese zodiac.

Now, you should not only be able to write and talk about the date in Chinese, but also have discussions about events relative to specific months (such as Chinese holidays).

You can even talk about the basics of the Chinese lunar calendar if it ever comes up in conversation.

And One More Thing...

If you want to continue learning Chinese with interactive and authentic Chinese content, then you'll love FluentU.

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FluentU has a wide range of contemporary videos—like dramas, TV shows, commercials and music videos.

FluentU App Browse Screen

FluentU brings these native Chinese videos within reach via interactive captions. You can tap on any word to instantly look it up. All words have carefully written definitions and examples that will help you understand how a word is used. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

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