How to Express Frequency (How Often) and Rates in Chinese

次

In addition to talking about how long something takes, you might want to talk about how often something happens, or how often you do something (like take some medicine, or trips to Hawaii). There are several ways to express frequency, the most common being

次

cì

, and some other common ways we'll look at below. In general, to express the frequency of events

次

cì

is used after the number:

Expressing Frequency
once	一次	yī cì
twice	两次	liǎng cì
thrice	三次	sān cì

To express the ordering of times of some event, you can use 第 and 次 together (Notice that here you use

二

èr

instead of

两

liǎng

):

Ordinal Frequency
first time	第一次	dì yī cì
second time	第二次	dì èr cì
third time	第三次	dì sān cì

You can also use

回

huí

to express frequency:

Expressing Frequency: 回
once	一回	yī huí
twice	两回	liǎng huí
thrice	三回	sān huí

Another word that is used to express frequency is

遍

biàn

. This word emphasizes the experience of the whole process of something from beginning to end, so it is frequently used with things like reading books or watching movies:

I saw the movie three times
I	saw	3	times	movie
我	看了	三	遍	电影
wǒ	kàn le	sān	biàn	diàn yǐng

Finally, we have

趟

tàng

. This word is specifically used to refer to trips, as the root meaning of the character is to take a journey.

I've been to Germany six times
Germany	I	went to	six	trips
德国	我	去过	六	趟
dé guó	wǒ	qù guò	liù	tàng

率

We can also talk about rates: how often something happens within some period of time:

率

lǜ

. For example, once per hour, twice per day, three times a week, once a month, etc. In Chinese to express how often you do something, the time unit comes first, then the number of times it happens:

Three times a day
one	day	three	times
一	天	三	次
yī	tiān	sān	cì

Notice in the previous example we have a different word for day:

天

tiān

than would be used in a date. Here's another example with the same pattern:

Two times a week
one	week	two	times
一	周	两	次
yī	zhōu	liǎng	cì

Another variation uses the word for each/every:

每

měi

in front of the duration. So "each day" or "every day" instead of "a day" or "one day":

Twice each day
every	day	two	times
每	天	两	次
měi	tiān	liǎng	cì

Once every 42 minutes
every	forty two	minutes	one	times
每	四十二	分钟	一	次
měi	sì shí èr	fēn zhōng	yī	cì

Four times each hour
each	hour	four	times
每	小时	四	次
měi	xiǎo shí	sì	cì

Notice the different word used for a duration of an hour

小时

xiǎo shí

, as opposed to an hour on a clock

点钟	diǎn zhōng

. Here's a few more examples:

Sixty times per second
each	second	sixty		times
每	秒	六	十	次
měi	miǎo	liù	shí	cì

Once each month
each	month		one	time
每	个	月	一	次
měi	gè	yuè	yī	cì

Ten times a year
each	year	ten	times
每	年	十	次
měi	nián	shí	cì

Once every four years
every	four	years	one	times
每	四	年	一	次
měi	sì	nián	yī	cì

One last note about usage in the context of a larger phrase. While in English we typically keep the entire frequency phrase together, for example "I go to the bank twice each month", in Chinese the components are often split into parts. The general form looks like this: Subject (time period) verb (number of times) object. So the same phrase in Chinese would read like this:

"I go to the bank twice each month"
I	each	month	go	two	times	bank
我	每个	月	去	两	次	银行
wǒ	měi gè	yuè	qù	liǎng	cì	yín háng

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