Lesson 13 - Jīntiān shì zhōuliù – Today is Saturday

你 们 好!
Nǐmen hǎo!
In this lesson, we will learn the weekdays in Chinese.

The concept of weekdays has been imported to China from the Western world. Maybe due to this fact, weekdays do not really have specific names in Chinese but instead, just carry numbers: weekday one, weekday two, weekday three, and four, five and six. Only Sunday has a name with more meaning.

We have already learned the numbers in Chinese. If you wish, you can first go back to lesson number 6 for a quick review, and then continue with this lesson.

Sentences

昨 天 是 周 五.
Zuótiān shì zhōuwǔ. Yesterday was Friday.

今 天 是 周 六.
Jīntiān shì zhōuliù. Today is Saturday.

明 天 是 周 日.
Míngtiān shì zhōurì Tomorrow is Sunday.

Vocabulary

zhōu 周 = week
xīngqī 星 期 = week
lǐbài 礼 拜 = week

zhōuyī 周 一 = Monday
zhōuèr 周 二 = Tuesday
zhōusān 周 三 = Wednesday
zhōusì 周 四 = Thursday
zhōuwǔ 周 五 = Friday
zhōuliù 周 六 = Saturday
zhōurì 周 日 = Sunday

Week
There are several words in Chinese to denote the concept of a week. In the examples above, we use the word zhōu to refer to this time period. It is also maybe the most commonly used word, both in colloquial and written language – partially because Chinese, like any other language, tends to favour shorter expressions. For this purpose, zhōu is the perfect one syllable word.

Another commonly used and casual expression is xīngqī. Litterally speaking, xīng means ”star” and qī is ”phase, period”.

The third word denoting "week" in Chinese is lǐbài. Lǐ literally means ”ceremony, rite, polite behaviour”. Bài stands for ”showing respect”. The original meaning of the word lǐbài was thus showing respect in a seremonial context or performing a religious rite. It still appears also in this meaning, but in spoken Chinese it mostly refers to a period of time known as a week.

We can use all of the three words mentioned above to form the names of weekdays from Monday to Saturday by adding numbers from one to six after the word. "Sunday" is an exception.

Sunday
There are many ways to say "Sunday" in Chinese.

Using the word zhōu, we already learned to say zhōurì. Rì (日) actually carries the meaning of "sun," but often appears in words referring to "day."

When using the words xīngqī and lǐbài, we turn them into "Sunday" by adding either the word rì or tiān ( 天) after them. Tiān carries the meaning of "day" and also "heaven/sky".

Yesterday – today – tomorrow
In the previous lesson, we learned the words for "yesterday," "today" and "tomorrow".

When we say ”yesterday was Friday”, ”today is Saturday” or ”tomorrow is Sunday,” we use the verb shì ( 是 ), "is". In the Chinese language, verbs do not inflect to indicate past or future tense.

Pronunciation exercises
Here are all the weekdays using the words xīngqī and lǐbài. Please listen and repeat!

xīngqīyī Monday
xīngqīèr Tuesday
xīngqīsān Wednesday
xīngqīsì Thursday
xīngqīwǔ Friday
xīngqīliù Saturday
xīngqītiān Sunday

and with lǐbài it goes like this:
lǐbàiyī Monday
lǐbàièr Tuesday
lǐbàisān Wednesday
lǐbàisì Thursday
lǐbàiwǔ Friday
lǐbàiliù Saturday
lǐbàiIrì, Sunday
lǐbàitiān Sunday