Unit 4.2 Dates & Festivals

Unit 4.2 Dates & Festivals

Word Cloud

Put down some important dates in Australia.

Word Cloud

Do you know some important dates/festivals in China.

New words

​

年	nián	year
今年	jīn nián	this year
明年	míng nián	next year
去年	qù nián	last year
前年	qián nián	year before last
后年	hòu nián	year after next

About the year

Language Focus

The year 年 is an important concept in dates. To refer to the current year, or the year before or after the current year, we add a modifier before 年：
Examples:
去年 今年 明年

About the year

Language Focus

To refer to a specific year, we state the series of numbers representing the year before 年:

Examples: 1776年 2008年 2050年

About the year

Language Focus

Note that in Chinese, the four-digit number for a year is read digit-by-digit.

Examples: 1995年 一九九五年 yī jiǔ jiǔ wǔ nián

2023年 二〇二三年 èr líng èr sān nián

Match

Match the following

• 2023年

• 2022年

• 2021年

• 2024年

• 2025年

今年

去年

前年

明年

后年

• 今年

• 去年

• 前年

• 明年

• 后年

About the month

Language Focus

​To name the months in Chinese is easy. Just simply say the number between one to twelve with the word 月, which means a month. So, 一月(yí yuè) is January, 二月(èr yuè) is February and so on.

Open Ended

What is the month of your birthday in Chinese?

Match

Match the following

• Valentine's Day

• Thanksgiving Day

• Mid-Autumn Festival

• Christmas

• Dragon Boat Festival

二月

十一月

九月

十二月

六月

• 二月

• 十一月

• 九月

• 十二月

• 六月

Reorder

Reorder the following dates from earliest to latest according to the months.

• Chinese New Year Day of 2023

• Easter 2023

• Father's Day of Australia 2023

• Halloween

• Black Friday 2023

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

About the days in a month

New words

​Chinese	​Pinyin	​English
​前天	qián tiān	​day before yesterday
​昨天	zuó tiān	​yesterday
​今天	jīn tiān	​today
​明天	míng tiān	​tomorrow
​后天	hòu tiān	​day after tomorrow
号	hào	date (spoken)
日	rì	date (written)

About the days in a month

Language Focus

​We can use either 号 or 日 to express the day in dates. 号 is more often used in spoken language whereas 日 is often used in formal, written documents, and often in conjunction with the month, e.g., 六月一日.

When asking and answering questions about time and dates, it is not necessary to put 是 in the sentence.
Examples: 今天几号？ 今天三号。What is today's date? It is the third today.
明天几号？ 明天八号。What is today's date? It is the eighth today.

About the days in a month

Language Comparison

​The vast majority of the world's countries uses the 'Day-Month-Year' date format. The Chinese date format has the largest data item written before the smaller data item, i.e., year before month before day.
Examples: 一九九九年三月五日 (5th March 1999)
二〇一五年十月十七号 (17th October 2015)
二〇二一年五月一号 (1st May 2021)

Reorder

Reorder the following

• 一月二十六号

• 三月十五号

• 四月二十五号

• 七月二十号

• 十月三十号

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Match

Match the following

• 五月一号

• 七月五号

• 六月八号

• 十月一号

• 三月三号

1st of May

5th of July

8th of June

1st of October

3rd of March

• 1st of May

• 5th of July

• 8th of June

• 1st of October

• 3rd of March

​Poster of Your Life Timeline

• Choose at least ten important events in your life and create a poster of the timeline.

• Label each event with the corresponding date in Chinese.

• Write the name of the event in English.

• Your poster could be done on your Chinese book/on your Chromebook.