M: Dàjiā hǎo! Huānyíng dào Xiànzài Xué Hànyǔ. Wǒ shì ML

S: Wǒ shì Stuart. Lesson 71.

M: 第七十一课，dì qī shí yī kè.

S: More times and dates - very important. ML, where are we going the evening of the day after tomorrow？后天晚上我们去哪儿？hòu tiān wǎnshàng wǒmen qù nǎr?

M: To see a movie. 后天晚上我们去看电影 hòu tiān wǎnshàng wǒmen qù kàn diànyǐng.

S: See a movie. 看一部电影 kàn yí bùdiànyǐng. What time does it start? 几点开始 jí diǎn kāishǐ?

M: 八点差十分. bā diǎn chà shí fēn.

S: Get the time, everybody? 八点差十分. bā diǎn chà shí fēn.

M: Duì le. Ten to eight. 八点差十分. bā diǎn chà shí fēn.

S: Now try to catch the word for ‘month’. A clue, January, the 1st month, is literally ‘one month’, in Chinese.

M: Tian na! I forgot! 我忘了！wǒ wàngle. The day after tomorrow is January the 1st. 后天是一月一号 hòu tiān shì yī yuè yī hào. I have something to do. 我有事wǒ yǒu shì.

S: Is January 2nd Ok? 一月二号, 行不行？yī yuè èr hào, xíng bù xíng.

M: yī yuè èr hào. Xing.

S: Did you catch the word for ‘month’? Listen again. January is …

M: 一月 yī yuè

S: February is ….

M: 二月èr yuè

S: Now, you at home say ‘March’

M: Duì le. 三月sān yuè. Actually, if we are just saying the month, with no date, we can add a little 份, FEN, fen. So March is 三月份 sān yuè fèn.

S: And what is April?

M: Méi cuò. 四月份 sì yuè fen.

S: And December?

M: Duì le. 十二月份 shí èr yuè fen. So yuè YUE yuè, 4th tone, means ‘month’.

S: Now let’s put a date in. January 1st is 一月一号 yī yuè yī hào.

M: January 2nd is 一月二号yī yuè èr hào.

S: So what is January 3rd?

M: Duìle. 一月三号yī yuè sān hào.

S: You’ve probably guessed by now that the hào HAO hào, 4th tone, in yī hào or èr hào here means ‘date’.

M: And if jí diǎn means ‘what time’, what does 几号jǐ hào mean?

S: Duìle. What date?’ So what does this mean: 今天是几号? jīntiān shì jǐ hào?

M: Duì le. What’s the date today? Jīntiān shì jǐ hào?

S: Pretend it’s April 13th. yī èr sān sì. Aha! Jīntiān shìsì yuè shí sān hào. Jīntiān shì sì yuè shí sān hào.

M: Hěn hǎo. Which brings us to homework time.

S: Your homework. Ask yourself, Jīntiān shì jǐ hào?

M: Then answer, 今天是一月一号 January 1st Jīntiān shì yī yuè yī hào.

S: And continue right through to December 31st, shí èr yuè sān shí yī hào.

M: Stuart, nǐ kāiwánxiào! That’s 365 questions and answers. Too many, 太多了tài duō le!

S: 366 – for a leap year! Zài jiàn.