--- title: Days of the week, the clock, birthdays — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Days of the week, the clock, birthdays», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Chinese week is a number game: xīngqī means week, and Monday is "week-one", xīngqīyī, Tuesday week-two, all the way to S --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / Days of the week, the clock, birthdays # Days of the week, the clock, birthdays Lesson 22 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/0/) — The Chinese week is a number game: xīngqī means week, and Monday is "week-one", xīngqīyī, Tuesday week-two, all the way to Saturday, xīngqīliù, week-six. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/1/) — Only Sunday breaks the pattern: it is xīngqītiān or xīngqīrì, where tiān and rì both just mean "day", not week-seven. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/2/) — Clock time uses diǎn, "dot": "jǐ diǎn le?" is "what time is it?", "sān diǎn bàn" is half past three; but when Lín's mum says "jǐ diǎn le?" at the door with her arms crossed, it means "you're late!". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/3/) — Dates go big to small: month, then day, so 8 March is "sān yuè bā hào"; and some grandparents also count birthdays by the moon calendar, so their birthday moves every year. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/4/) — Tones matter here too: fēn (high) is a minute, but fèn (falling) is a portion — "shí fēnzhōng" is ten minutes, the most bargained-over time in any home. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/5/) — "xīngqīyī" means Monday, literally "week-one"; the days are numbered from Monday (1) to Saturday (6). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/6/) — "xīngqīliù" means Saturday, "week-six"; "zhōuliù" is another way of saying it, and many children go to Chinese school on Saturday. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/7/) — "xīngqītiān" means Sunday, the only day without a number; "xīngqīrì" means the same. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/8/) — "zhōumò" means the weekend; "zhōumò kuàilè" (happy weekend) is a common Friday goodbye. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/9/) — "jǐ diǎn le?" means "what time is it?" and the answer is like "sān diǎn le", it's three o'clock; diǎn means dot, o'clock. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/10/) — "sān diǎn bàn" means half past three; bàn means half, so "yí ge bàn xiǎoshí" is an hour and a half. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/11/) — "shí fēnzhōng" means ten minutes; fēn (minute) is high and level, while fèn (falling) means a portion. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/12/) — "chídào le" means late for school or a lesson; "kuài diǎnr, yào chídào le!" is "hurry, we'll be late!", while wǎn is just late in the day. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/13/) — "shénme shíhou?" means "when?"; "nǐ shénme shíhou lái?" is "when are you coming?". - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/14/) — "shēngrì" means birthday; "nǐ de shēngrì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?" asks the date, and Chinese dates go month then day. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/15/) — Some grandparents also count birthdays by the lunar calendar, which falls on a different Western date each year. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/22-days-the-clock-and-birthdays/16/) — "fàngjià" means school holidays; "fàngjià le!" means "holidays have started!", shǔjià is the summer holiday and hánjià the winter holiday. - ← previous: [Today, tomorrow, now, later](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/21-today-tomorrow-now-later/) - next →: [Friendly teasing — when it's fun and when it stings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/23-friendly-teasing/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)