24.11 Asking About Time with 邊 bin1

We can combine 邊 bin1 (‘which’) with the words 年 nin4 (‘year’), 月 jyut6 (‘month’) or 日 jat6 (‘day’) to mean ‘which year’, ‘which month’ or ‘which day’.

The words 年 nin4 (‘year’) and 日 jat6 (‘day’) are measurement unit classifiers. They are used alone without a noun. We simply put 邊 bin1 before them.

The word 月 jyut6 (‘month’) is a noun instead of a classifier. We add the classifier 個 go3 between 邊 bin1 and 月 jyut6.

We can optionally add the number 一 jat1 (‘one’) before the classifier.

Note that we only say 邊日 bin1 jat6 but not 邊號 bin1 hou6. Pay attention to these expressions: