Y: Perfect Chinese your way, in only five minutes a day. Welcome to Chinese Studio. I’m Yajie.
C: Hi, everyone, I’m Cam. 早上好 zǎoshang hǎo, yajie.
Y: 早上好！Today we’ll continue with how to use numbers. First let’s check our key words of the day!
************Key words of the day
Today we’ll continue with the usages of the numbers. For example, 四月二十五号 April the 25. 五月一号, May the 1st. 星期一，Monday. 星期三，Wednesday. 星期天, Sunday. All in today’s Chinese Studio.
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Y: In Chinese, the date is pronounced by combining the numbers 1 to 31 with 号, which is the spoken form, or 日, the written form. For example you could say 四月二十七号 April the 27 (可以灵活调整时间). The pronunciation of号 is similar to that of 好in the sentence 我很好. The difference lies in the tone. 号 is the fourth tone; and 好 is the third tone.
C: 号, (hào); 四月二十七号 (sìyuè èrshíqī hào).
Y: I’m waiting for五月一号when we’ll be on holiday. 五月一号, May the first.
C: 五月一号(wǔ yuè yī hào).
Y: 六月一号, June the first.
C: 六月一号(liù yuè yī hào). That is national Children’s day.
Y: I used to celebrate on that day and did some performances when I was younger.
C: Too bad I missed it! Yajie, how do you say December 25th, Christmas?
Y: It’s 十二月二十五日。
C: 十二月二十五日 (shí èr yuè èrshí wǔ hao). Got it. Thanks. And the New Year, January the first is 一月一号 (yī yuè yī hào), right?
Y: Yes.
Y: If you refer to a date in the current month, you can delet “月”, and say …号directly. The numbers from 1 to 6 follow“星期” They are used to say Monday to Saturday.
C: Then Monday is星期一(xīngqī yī). Tuesday is星期二(xīngqī èr). Wednesday is星期三(xīngqī sān).
Y: Well done! How to say Thursday and Friday in Chinese?
C: Thursday is星期四(xīngqī sì), and Friday s星期五(xīngqī wǔ).
Y: What about Saturday?
C: Well, Saturday is星期六(xīngqī liù). And Sunday is 星期七. (xīngqī qī).
Y: No no… for Sunday it’s different. In China people would say 星期天.天. You can also say 星期日. Both are okay for saying Sunday in Chinese.
C: 星期日。
**********Key words reminder
四月二十五号 April the 25. 五月一号, May the 1st. 星期一，Monday. 星期三，Wednesday. 星期天, Sunday.
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Y: My favorite day is 星期天, ‘cause we can rest from work.
Cam: My favorite day is xing qi liu because it’s the first day of my weekend.
Y: Well, class is over for this time. Don’t forget you can win a gift by answering the question of the day in Chinese: what’s your favorite day of the week?
