2.5 Days, Ages and Dates and Place of Birth

In this lesson, you’ll learn to understand questions and answers about dates including date of birth, about place of birth and about ages. In the last lesson, you learned some uses of the shi de construction. This construction may shift the center of interest not only to when or how something happened, but also to where something happened.

Here’s the verb for to be born.

Listen for to be born in the exchange.

Notice that shi comes before the place phrases, zài nǎr, in the question and zài Dézhōu in the answer, identifying them as the center of interest.

Check your comprehension.

You can already talk about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Now let’s learn how to talk about days of the week.

Listen to the word for a week.

Now listen to the word for Monday.

Here’s the word for Tuesday.

What do you think Wednesday might be?

The days for Monday through Saturday are all constructed the same way – by putting the number of the day after the word for week.

Listen to the days of the week from Monday to Saturday.

In the following exchange, Mrs. Anderson is talking to a Chinese friend in Guangdong. She and her husband are stopping over on their way to Beijing. Listen.

Here’s the word for Sunday.

To ask what day of the week, you put the bound word -jǐ how many at the end of the word for week.

Listen to the phrase for what day of the week.

Now listen as the conversation continues.

Let’s listen in to a live conversation between two Chinese, reviewing what you’ve had so far.

Now let’s turn to another kind of time expression – dates. Listen to Mrs. Anderson give her year of birth.

Here’s the expression which year.

You’ve already had the bound word něi, nián means year.

Here’s how you say 1939.

Remember that in a sequence of digits, the numbers yī one, xī seven, and bā eight keep their basic high tones.

Check your comprehension.

Here’s a similar exchange live.

Notice that in giving a year, the word you used for two is èr.

Check your comprehension.

Here’s the word for month.

The names of the months are numbers from one to twelve followed by the word yuè.

Listen to the speaker say the names of the months through June.

In the word for January, the basic high tone of the word yī one, changes to rising before the falling tone on the word yuè month. The same tone change usually takes place on the words for July and August.

Listen to July and August.

Here’s the expression for what month.

Since the months are numbered, the bound word -jǐ how many, is an appropriate question form here just as it was in what day of the week. The jǐ in jǐyuè can of course be replaced by a number up to twelve.

The conversation might continue like this.

Now see if you can identify the names of some months.

Here’s the expression what day

The day of the month is expressed by the number followed by the bound word hào, which you’ll remember as also used in giving addresses.

Listen to the speaker count up to the fifth of the month.

Notice than in this case, the jǐ of jǐhào may be replaced by a number as high as 31.

The conversation might continue like this.

Let’s make sure that you have the units of time straight. Let’s review.

Let’s turn now to the subject of age. Here’s a common way of asking someone’s age.

Here’s the expression for how old.

By itself, the word duō means how in the sense of how much and the word dà means big. In this sentence as the high tone duō is followed by the falling tone of dà it changes into a rising tone duó.

Notice that the verb to be seems to be missing in these sentences. In English, we would have to say you are how big?, I’m 24.

These sentences could also be said without the final le marker. The marker le, which ends both sentences, is the ‘new situation’ le alone without the ‘completed action’ le. After all, being a certain age is a state, not an action. The second speaker is saying that she has changed from the state of being 23 to the state of being 24.

Check your comprehension.

When you’re talking about a child 10 years old or less, you ask his/her age in a different way.

The Anderson’s have one daughter. Listen as Mrs. Anderson gives her age.

Here’s the word for years old.

You’ll remember that the word jǐ is used for how many when you expect that the answer will be ten or less.

Now listen to the speaker count from one year of age to five.

Listen for the expressions with suì in the exchange live.

Two and three syllable ages may be given either way. Though ages over twenty are usually given their short forms – without suì.

Now listen as Mrs. Anderson talks about the Martin’s children.

Notice that we translate the sentence nǐmen nánháizi dōu jǐsuì le? as How old are your boys not How old are both your boys. In English, we don’t use the word all or both when expecting different information about each of the things being asked about.

Check your comprehension.

Pronunciation Practice