In short

Clock times, dates and prices are all built the same way: a number plus a unit word (点 diǎn “o’clock”, 月 yuè “month”, 块 kuài “yuan”), always running big unit to small unit - the reverse of English. To tell the time, give a date or quote a price you need no verb at all: the number phrase is the whole predicate (现在三点。 Xiànzài sān diǎn. “It’s three o’clock.”).

The rule

This lesson is about the shapes of these phrases and where they sit in a sentence. It assumes you can already build the numbers themselves - see Numbers (二 vs 两; big numbers).

Clock time - hours, then minutes. The frame is [hour]点 + [minutes]分: 两点二十分 liǎng diǎn èr shí fēn (2:20). Four shortcuts do most of the work:

• 半 bàn = half past: 三点半 sān diǎn bàn (3:30).
• 刻 kè = a quarter (15 min): 三点一刻 sān diǎn yī kè (3:15), 三点三刻 sān diǎn sān kè (3:45). There is no 二刻 for 30 - use 半.
• 差 chà = “lacking / to”: 差五分八点 chà wǔ fēn bā diǎn (7:55, “five to eight”).
• Minutes under ten take a spoken 零 líng: 两点零五分 liǎng diǎn líng wǔ fēn (2:05). 分 itself is optional after the number: 两点二十 = 两点二十分.

The hour “2” is 两点 liǎng diǎn, never 二点 (2 before a unit word behaves like 2 before a measure word). But 12 o’clock is 十二点 shí èr diǎn - inside a bigger number the digit stays 二. Put the part of day before the hour: 早上 zǎoshang (early morning), 上午 shàngwǔ (morning), 中午 zhōngwǔ (noon), 下午 xiàwǔ (afternoon), 晚上 wǎnshang (evening) - so 3 p.m. is 下午三点 xiàwǔ sān diǎn.

Dates - year, month, day, weekday, in that order. The frame is [digits]年 + [n]月 + [n]号 + 星期[n]:

• 年 nián “year” - read the digits one by one: 二零二六年 èr líng èr liù nián (2026), not as a whole number.
• 月 yuè “month” - just number + 月: 一月 yī yuè (January) … 十二月 shí èr yuè (December).
• 号 hào “day of the month” in speech; the written form is 日 rì: 十七号 shí qī hào = 十七日 (the 17th).
• 星期 xīngqī “week” + number for the weekday: 星期一 xīngqī yī (Monday) … 星期六 xīngqī liù (Saturday). Sunday breaks the pattern: 星期天 xīngqī tiān (spoken) or 星期日 xīngqī rì (written), never 星期七.

Money - three units, spoken vs written. The everyday spoken words are 块 kuài (the yuan) and 毛 máo (a tenth); on receipts and price tags you see the formal 元 yuán and 角 jiǎo. The frame is [n]块 + [n]毛 + [n]分, and the last unit is usually dropped: 三块五 sān kuài wǔ = 3.50 yuan. Ask with 多少钱 duōshao qián (“how much money”). As with the clock, 2 yuan is 两块 liǎng kuài, not 二块.

Where the phrase goes in the sentence. A clock time or date is a “time-when” word: it comes before the verb, after (or before) the subject, never after the object. The frame is Subject + Time-when + Verb (+ Object): 我下午三点上课。 Wǒ xiàwǔ sān diǎn shàngkè. (“I have class at 3 p.m.”). English puts “at 3 p.m.” at the end; Chinese never does. 到 dào (“to / until”) marks the far end of a stretch of time. Between two time phrases - optionally opened with 从 cóng (“from”) - the whole span is one time-when phrase and still sits before the verb: 我九点到五点上班。 Wǒ jiǔ diǎn dào wǔ diǎn shàngbān. (“I work nine to five.”), 从星期一到星期五 cóng xīngqī yī dào xīngqī wǔ (“Monday to Friday”). After the verb the same 到 gives the point the action runs up to: 银行开到四点半。 Yínháng kāi dào sì diǎn bàn. (“The bank is open until half past four.”). (Relative time words like 以前 / 以后 belong to Time words, sequence and simultaneity.)

Forms & patterns

Telling the time:

Days of the week:

Money units - spoken vs written:

Examples

Common mistakes

• 二点 -> 两点 (liǎng diǎn, 2:00) - the hour “2” before 点 takes 两, like 2 before a measure word; but 12:00 stays 十二点 because the 2 is inside a bigger number.
• 我起床下午三点 -> 我下午三点起床 (wǒ xiàwǔ sān diǎn qǐchuáng, I get up at 3 p.m.) - a time-when phrase goes before the verb, never trailing at the end as in English.
• 今天不星期五 -> 今天不是星期五 (jīntiān bù shì xīngqī wǔ, today is not Friday; 不 bù is written in its citation tone but is said bú before the 4th-tone 是) - a date / time / price predicate drops 是 only when positive; to negate it you must restore 是 and negate that with 不.
• 星期七 -> 星期天 / 星期日 (xīngqī tiān / xīngqī rì, Sunday) - Sunday is 天 or 日, never 七.
• 两千零二十六年 -> 二零二六年 (èr líng èr liù nián, the year 2026) - a year is read digit by digit, not as one cardinal number.

Tips

• Everything runs big to small: a full date-time is year -> month -> day -> weekday -> part of day -> hour -> minute, the exact reverse of English “3:15 p.m. on Friday, July 17.”
• No verb is needed to state the time, date or price - the number phrase is the predicate: 现在三点。今天星期五。一共二十块。 (Xiànzài sān diǎn. Jīntiān xīngqī wǔ. Yīgòng èr shí kuài.) Add 是 only for emphasis or, obligatorily, in the negative (不是).
• Two registers, two words: 块 / 毛 (spoken) vs 元 / 角 (written), and 号 / 星期天 (spoken) vs 日 / 星期日 (written). 周 zhōu is a common shorter swap for 星期: 周一 zhōu yī = 星期一.
• The “two” trap recurs: 两点 (2:00), 两块 (2 yuan), 两毛 (2 jiao) all take 两. And 一 shifts tone by sandhi in speech (yì / yí) - the character never changes; see Numbers (二 vs 两; big numbers).