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0z\"\u002F>",true,{"id":36,"title":37,"author":38,"authorsTake":39,"body":40,"category":562,"cefrLevel":563,"date":564,"description":565,"extension":566,"faqs":567,"heroImage":563,"intro":563,"language":563,"lastUpdated":563,"meta":580,"navigation":34,"path":581,"seo":582,"socialDescription":563,"stem":583,"tags":584,"tldr":589,"verbSlugs":563,"__hash__":590},"resources\u002Fresources\u002Fmandarin\u002Fdays-of-the-week-in-mandarin.md","Days of the Week in Mandarin: 星期一 to 星期日 and the Three Words That All Mean Week","Michael McGettrick","The days-of-the-week system in Mandarin is the cleanest pattern in the language and almost nobody flags it for what it is. Learners arriving from Spanish or French have just spent months memorising lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo or lundi mardi mercredi jeudi vendredi samedi dimanche, seven unrelated words derived from Roman planetary gods, and then they open the Mandarin chapter and the whole week is 星期 plus one two three four five six. There is no etymology to learn, no irregular Sunday to memorise as a separate lexical item beyond the 日 \u002F 天 split, and no gender or article system to layer on top. The cognitive load is roughly one-seventh of the Romance equivalent.\n\nThe 礼拜 question is the one that actually matters for adult learners who are going to spend time around real Chinese speakers rather than only textbooks. My partner's family is Malaysian-Chinese and 礼拜 is the default at home: 礼拜一 for Monday, 礼拜天 for Sunday, no 星期 in sight. The textbook insists on 星期 because the textbook is calibrated for mainland Putonghua. Both are correct. The mistake to avoid is treating 礼拜 as wrong or as a dialect curiosity. In Malaysia, Singapore, parts of southern mainland China, much of Taiwan, and casual mainland speech across the board, it is the everyday form.\n\nThe hill I will land on: drill 周一 to 周日 first, then learn the 星期 forms, then notice the 礼拜 ones in the wild. The 周 form is what calendars use, what email signatures use, what news headlines use, and what every text message between native speakers defaults to because it is the shortest. Textbooks teach 星期 first because it is the most explicit and the easiest to gloss for beginners, but the form your eyes will actually see most often in real life is 周.\n",{"type":41,"value":42,"toc":547},"minimark",[43,48,52,57,60,197,200,203,207,210,271,274,277,280,284,287,297,300,304,307,311,314,317,321,324,373,376,379,383,386,433,436,440,443,446,450,453,489,492,495,499,502,505,509],[44,45,47],"h1",{"id":46},"days-of-the-week-in-mandarin","Days of the Week in Mandarin",[49,50,51],"p",{},"Mandarin days of the week are the cleanest pattern in the language. Monday is 星期一 (xīng qī yī, literally week one) through Saturday 星期六 (xīng qī liù, week six). Sunday is the odd one out, named 星期日 (xīng qī rì) in writing and 星期天 (xīng qī tiān) in casual speech. The structural quirk learners arriving from European languages miss is that there are three competing words for week itself: 星期 (xīng qī), 礼拜 (lǐ bài) and 周 (zhōu), each carrying its own regional and register baggage but all combining with the day number in identical fashion.",[53,54,56],"h2",{"id":55},"the-seven-days","The seven days",[49,58,59],{},"The numbered pattern, with the standard mainland 星期 form:",[61,62,63,82],"table",{},[64,65,66],"thead",{},[67,68,69,73,76,79],"tr",{},[70,71,72],"th",{},"Day",[70,74,75],{},"Simplified",[70,77,78],{},"Pinyin",[70,80,81],{},"Literal",[83,84,85,100,114,128,142,156,170,184],"tbody",{},[67,86,87,91,94,97],{},[88,89,90],"td",{},"Monday",[88,92,93],{},"星期一",[88,95,96],{},"xīng qī yī",[88,98,99],{},"week one",[67,101,102,105,108,111],{},[88,103,104],{},"Tuesday",[88,106,107],{},"星期二",[88,109,110],{},"xīng qī èr",[88,112,113],{},"week two",[67,115,116,119,122,125],{},[88,117,118],{},"Wednesday",[88,120,121],{},"星期三",[88,123,124],{},"xīng qī sān",[88,126,127],{},"week three",[67,129,130,133,136,139],{},[88,131,132],{},"Thursday",[88,134,135],{},"星期四",[88,137,138],{},"xīng qī sì",[88,140,141],{},"week four",[67,143,144,147,150,153],{},[88,145,146],{},"Friday",[88,148,149],{},"星期五",[88,151,152],{},"xīng qī wǔ",[88,154,155],{},"week five",[67,157,158,161,164,167],{},[88,159,160],{},"Saturday",[88,162,163],{},"星期六",[88,165,166],{},"xīng qī liù",[88,168,169],{},"week six",[67,171,172,175,178,181],{},[88,173,174],{},"Sunday",[88,176,177],{},"星期日",[88,179,180],{},"xīng qī rì",[88,182,183],{},"week sun",[67,185,186,188,191,194],{},[88,187,174],{},[88,189,190],{},"星期天",[88,192,193],{},"xīng qī tiān",[88,195,196],{},"week day",[49,198,199],{},"Tone marks are not decoration. 星期 is two flat first tones (xīng qī), then the day-number tone: yī (first), èr (fourth), sān (first), sì (fourth), wǔ (third), liù (fourth), and on Sunday 日 (fourth) or 天 (first). Traditional characters are identical to simplified throughout, which is rare in Mandarin vocabulary.",[49,201,202],{},"The point worth stopping on: there is no etymology to memorise. Romance-language learners spent months on lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo, seven unrelated Latin roots tied to Roman gods. Mandarin gives you 星期 plus one to six, and a separate word for Sunday. The cognitive load is roughly one-seventh of the European equivalent, and learners almost never get told this is a gift.",[53,204,206],{"id":205},"the-three-words-for-week","The three words for week",[49,208,209],{},"This is the structural thing the textbook flattens. Three words all mean week and all combine with the day number in the same frame.",[61,211,212,227],{},[64,213,214],{},[67,215,216,219,221,224],{},[70,217,218],{},"Week-word",[70,220,78],{},[70,222,223],{},"Origin",[70,225,226],{},"Where it dominates",[83,228,229,243,257],{},[67,230,231,234,237,240],{},[88,232,233],{},"星期",[88,235,236],{},"xīng qī",[88,238,239],{},"star period, mainland Putonghua norm",[88,241,242],{},"Mainland textbooks, formal speech, neutral default",[67,244,245,248,251,254],{},[88,246,247],{},"礼拜",[88,249,250],{},"lǐ bài",[88,252,253],{},"ceremony-worship, missionary-era loan",[88,255,256],{},"Southern China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan casual, southern speech",[67,258,259,262,265,268],{},[88,260,261],{},"周",[88,263,264],{},"zhōu",[88,266,267],{},"cycle or revolution",[88,269,270],{},"Written register, calendars, news headlines, text messages",[49,272,273],{},"Monday is 星期一 (xīng qī yī), 礼拜一 (lǐ bài yī), or 周一 (zhōu yī). Same day, no semantic difference.",[49,275,276],{},"星期 is the safe default with mainland speakers and across HSK materials. 礼拜 catches mainland-textbook learners off guard. My partner's Malaysian-Chinese family use 礼拜 at the dinner table for every day of the week. In Taipei, language-course classmates trained on mainland materials would flinch when a shop assistant said 礼拜天 (lǐ bài tiān) rather than 星期天. In southern mainland cities, across Taiwan, and throughout the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, 礼拜 is the everyday form.",[49,278,279],{},"周 is what your eyes will actually see most often. Calendars print 周一 周二 周三 across the top. WeChat messages default to 下周三 (xià zhōu sān, next Wednesday) because it is two characters shorter than 下星期三. News headlines prefer 周 universally.",[53,281,283],{"id":282},"sunday-日-vs-天","Sunday: 日 vs 天",[49,285,286],{},"Sunday is the only day with two valid mainstream forms.",[288,289,290,294],"ul",{},[291,292,293],"li",{},"星期日 (xīng qī rì) uses 日 (rì, day or sun). The literary and written register: calendars, news, broadcasts. Pairs with 周, giving 周日 (zhōu rì) as the universal written Sunday.",[291,295,296],{},"星期天 (xīng qī tiān) uses 天 (tiān, sky or day). The casual spoken register, the form a flatmate would use about weekend plans.",[49,298,299],{},"Both are standard mainland Mandarin; the choice is register, not correctness. In the 礼拜 frame both work (礼拜日 and 礼拜天), with 礼拜天 more common in southern speech. In the 周 frame only 日 works: 周日 is universal, 周天 is not used. Sunday gets special treatment because it is the day that did not get a number; 一 to 六 covers Monday through Saturday and Sunday sits outside the sequence with its own name.",[53,301,303],{"id":302},"the-monday-first-week","The Monday-first week",[49,305,306],{},"Mandarin numbers Monday as 一. The week starts on Monday because Monday is numbered one; Sunday is the unnumbered day at the end. This matches ISO 8601 and the European calendar convention, not the US Sunday-first layout. Chinese paper and digital calendars print Monday in the leftmost column, and 下星期三 (xià xīng qī sān, next Wednesday) is unambiguous.",[53,308,310],{"id":309},"the-礼拜-etymology","The 礼拜 etymology",[49,312,313],{},"礼拜 literally means ceremony-worship. It entered modern Chinese via 19th-century Christian missionaries who reached for 礼拜日 or 礼拜天 (worship day) for the Sunday observance. The usage stuck and generalised backwards: if Sunday is 礼拜日, the day before is 礼拜六, and so on through 礼拜一.",[49,315,316],{},"This explains the geography. Missionary activity was concentrated in southern coastal cities, British and Portuguese colonial territory (Hong Kong, Macau), and the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora. The term took hold there. Northern mainland speech stuck with the older 星期. To a younger urban mainland speaker, 礼拜 reads as slightly old-fashioned or southern. To a Malaysian-Chinese speaker, 星期 reads as stiff or mainland-broadcast.",[53,318,320],{"id":319},"this-last-and-next","This, last and next",[49,322,323],{},"The week-pointing words use the measure word 个 (gè) with the week-word:",[61,325,326,338],{},[64,327,328],{},[67,329,330,333,335],{},[70,331,332],{},"Mandarin",[70,334,78],{},[70,336,337],{},"Meaning",[83,339,340,351,362],{},[67,341,342,345,348],{},[88,343,344],{},"这个星期",[88,346,347],{},"zhè ge xīng qī",[88,349,350],{},"this week",[67,352,353,356,359],{},[88,354,355],{},"上个星期",[88,357,358],{},"shàng ge xīng qī",[88,360,361],{},"last week",[67,363,364,367,370],{},[88,365,366],{},"下个星期",[88,368,369],{},"xià ge xīng qī",[88,371,372],{},"next week",[49,374,375],{},"The frame extends to specific days. This Monday is 这个星期一 (zhè ge xīng qī yī). Next Monday is 下个星期一, and in casual speech the 个 often drops: 下星期一. The shorter 周 form is even more compact: 下周一 (xià zhōu yī), the dominant written and text-message form.",[49,377,378],{},"A trap worth flagging: do not say 明星期一 by analogy with 明天 (míng tiān, tomorrow). The 明 prefix only attaches to 天 and 年 (明年, míng nián, next year), not to 星期 or 周. Next Monday is 下星期一, not 明星期一.",[53,380,382],{"id":381},"yesterday-today-tomorrow","Yesterday, today, tomorrow",[49,384,385],{},"The day-relative words sit alongside the days of the week and combine with them in is-statements.",[61,387,388,398],{},[64,389,390],{},[67,391,392,394,396],{},[70,393,332],{},[70,395,78],{},[70,397,337],{},[83,399,400,411,422],{},[67,401,402,405,408],{},[88,403,404],{},"昨天",[88,406,407],{},"zuó tiān",[88,409,410],{},"yesterday",[67,412,413,416,419],{},[88,414,415],{},"今天",[88,417,418],{},"jīn tiān",[88,420,421],{},"today",[67,423,424,427,430],{},[88,425,426],{},"明天",[88,428,429],{},"míng tiān",[88,431,432],{},"tomorrow",[49,434,435],{},"To say yesterday was Monday: 昨天是星期一 (zuó tiān shì xīng qī yī). The copula 是 (shì, to be) joins the day-relative and the day-name. Today is Tuesday: 今天是星期二. Mandarin does not mark tense on 是, so the same construction covers past, present and future, with the day-relative word doing the temporal work.",[53,437,439],{"id":438},"asking-what-day-it-is","Asking what day it is",[49,441,442],{},"The standard question is 今天星期几 (jīn tiān xīng qī jǐ), literally today week-which. 几 (jǐ) is the small-numbers question word, used when the answer is expected to be a single digit. 今天是星期几 also works with the optional 是, but the no-是 version is the more common spoken form.",[49,444,445],{},"The answer mirrors the structure: 今天星期三. No 是 needed if the question dropped it. The 礼拜 and 周 versions work identically: 今天礼拜几, 今天周几. Beware 今天几号 (jīn tiān jǐ hào), which asks for the date number, not the day of the week.",[53,447,449],{"id":448},"weekdays-and-weekends","Weekdays and weekends",[49,451,452],{},"The functional pair sits slightly outside the day-name frame.",[61,454,455,465],{},[64,456,457],{},[67,458,459,461,463],{},[70,460,332],{},[70,462,78],{},[70,464,337],{},[83,466,467,478],{},[67,468,469,472,475],{},[88,470,471],{},"工作日",[88,473,474],{},"gōng zuò rì",[88,476,477],{},"working day, weekday",[67,479,480,483,486],{},[88,481,482],{},"周末",[88,484,485],{},"zhōu mò",[88,487,488],{},"weekend",[49,490,491],{},"Note that 周末 (zhōu mò, literally week-end) uses the 周 form even when the speaker is otherwise using 星期 for the individual days. It is a fixed expression. 星期末 does not work; 周末 is the locked form for weekend.",[49,493,494],{},"工作日 is the formal term, used in HR and business contexts. In casual speech, native speakers often just enumerate (星期一到星期五, xīng qī yī dào xīng qī wǔ, Monday to Friday) rather than reach for the compound.",[53,496,498],{"id":497},"abbreviations-and-writing","Abbreviations and writing",[49,500,501],{},"In casual writing and digital communication, the 周 form dominates because it is shorter: 周一 is two characters, 星期一 is three. WeChat, text messages and email subject lines all default to 周 on cost-per-character grounds alone.",[49,503,504],{},"Paper and digital calendars often display 一 二 三 四 五 六 日 across the top with no 星期 or 周 prefix at all, on the assumption that the user can fill in the rest. This is the most compressed form and the one to recognise rather than produce.",[53,506,508],{"id":507},"cross-links","Cross-links",[288,510,511,519,526,533,540],{},[291,512,513,518],{},[514,515,517],"a",{"href":516},"\u002Fmandarin","Mandarin pillar"," for the adult-learner curriculum that puts the days of the week in the first 100 words.",[291,520,521,525],{},[514,522,524],{"href":523},"\u002Fmandarin\u002Fpinyin","Pinyin and tones"," for the tone marks on 星期 and the day numbers.",[291,527,528,532],{},[514,529,531],{"href":530},"\u002Fmandarin\u002Fvocabulary-by-hsk","Mandarin vocabulary by HSK"," for where 星期, 周, 礼拜 and the day numbers sit on the HSK 1 to HSK 6 ladder.",[291,534,535,539],{},[514,536,538],{"href":537},"\u002Fresources\u002Fmandarin\u002Fhow-to-say-good-morning-in-mandarin","How to say good morning in Mandarin"," for the times-of-day greetings that pair with the day-of-week vocabulary.",[291,541,542,546],{},[514,543,545],{"href":544},"\u002Fmandarin\u002Fgrammar","Mandarin grammar"," for the 是 copula and the measure-word 个 patterns this article relies on.",{"title":548,"searchDepth":549,"depth":549,"links":550},"",2,[551,552,553,554,555,556,557,558,559,560,561],{"id":55,"depth":549,"text":56},{"id":205,"depth":549,"text":206},{"id":282,"depth":549,"text":283},{"id":302,"depth":549,"text":303},{"id":309,"depth":549,"text":310},{"id":319,"depth":549,"text":320},{"id":381,"depth":549,"text":382},{"id":438,"depth":549,"text":439},{"id":448,"depth":549,"text":449},{"id":497,"depth":549,"text":498},{"id":507,"depth":549,"text":508},"Methodology",null,"2026-06-11T00:00:00+00:00","Days of the week in Mandarin Chinese. 星期一 to 星期日, the three competing words for week (星期, 礼拜, 周), the Sunday 日 vs 天 split, the Monday-first numbering rule, and how to say this week, last week, next Monday.","md",[568,571,574,577],{"q":569,"a":570},"Why are there three different words for week in Mandarin?","星期 (xīng qī), 礼拜 (lǐ bài) and 周 (zhōu) all mean week and all combine with the day number identically, but they sit in different registers and different regions. 星期 is the mainland Putonghua textbook standard, literally star period. 礼拜 (literally ceremony-worship) entered Chinese via Christian missionaries naming Sunday the worship day and then bled into the rest of the week; it is the casual default in southern China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. 周 means cycle or revolution and is the shorter written form, dominant in calendars, news and text messages. 星期一 = 礼拜一 = 周一, all Monday.",{"q":572,"a":573},"What is the difference between 星期日 and 星期天 for Sunday?","Both mean Sunday and both are correct. 星期日 (xīng qī rì) uses 日 (rì, day or sun) and sits in the formal and written register, the version that appears on official calendars, in news, and in textbooks. 星期天 (xīng qī tiān) uses 天 (tiān, sky or day) and is the casual spoken form, slightly warmer and more conversational. The 周 form only takes 日, never 天, so Sunday in the 周 frame is always 周日. Mainland speakers use both 星期日 and 星期天 freely; 星期天 is slightly more common in casual speech.",{"q":575,"a":576},"Does the Chinese week start on Monday or Sunday?","Monday, by definition. The numbering is built into the word: Monday is 星期一 (week one), Tuesday is 星期二 (week two), through Saturday 星期六 (week six). Sunday is the unnumbered day, named 日 or 天 rather than 七. The US-style Sunday-first calendar convention does not exist in Chinese. Calendars print Monday in the leftmost column, ISO 8601 style. This is one of the cleaner cross-cultural calendar rules: if a Chinese colleague says 下星期三, there is no ambiguity about which Wednesday they mean.",{"q":578,"a":579},"How do you say next Monday in Mandarin?","下个星期一 (xià ge xīng qī yī) or, more commonly in casual speech, 下星期一 with the measure word 个 dropped. The pattern is 下 (xià, next) + optional 个 + 星期 + day number. Last Monday is 上个星期一 (shàng ge xīng qī yī) or 上星期一. This Monday is 这个星期一 (zhè ge xīng qī yī). The same frame works with 礼拜 (下礼拜一) and 周 (下周一), and in fact 下周一 is the dominant written form. The Westernised pitfall to avoid: do not say 明星期一 by analogy with 明天 for tomorrow. The 明 prefix only attaches to 天 and 年 (明年, next year), not to 星期.",{},"\u002Fresources\u002Fmandarin\u002Fdays-of-the-week-in-mandarin",{"title":37,"description":565},"resources\u002Fmandarin\u002Fdays-of-the-week-in-mandarin",[585,586,587,588],"mandarin vocabulary","mandarin for beginners","days of the week","language learning","Monday to Saturday is 星期 (xīng qī) plus the number: 星期一 (xīng qī yī) Monday, 星期二 (xīng qī èr) Tuesday, through 星期六 (xīng qī liù) Saturday. Sunday is the odd one out: 星期日 (xīng qī rì) in writing and on the mainland, 星期天 (xīng qī tiān) in casual speech. The week itself has three words: 星期 (xīng qī, mainland standard), 礼拜 (lǐ bài, a Christian-missionary loan now common in southern China, Malaysia and Singapore), and 周 (zhōu, the written or calendar-week form). 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