十日 (shírì): ten days

Meanings

1 ten days
2 the tenth day (of a month)
3 (mythology) the ten suns of antiquity

Characters

十

Examples

他在医院住了十日才出院。

Tā zài yīyuàn zhù le shírì cái chūyuàn.

He stayed in the hospital for ten days before being discharged.

古代传说天上本有十日，被后羿射落了九个。

Gǔdài chuánshuō tiānshàng běn yǒu shí rì, bèi Hòu Yì shèluò le jiǔ ge.

An ancient legend says there were originally ten suns in the sky, nine of which were shot down by Hou Yi.

Tips

culture

Beyond the literal 'ten days', 十日 carries strong mythological weight: in the legend of 后羿射日 (Hòu Yì shè rì, 'Hou Yi shoots the suns'), ten suns once rose together and scorched the earth, and the archer Hou Yi shot down nine to save the world. The phrase also names Boccaccio's 《十日谈》 (Shírì Tán, The Decameron) in Chinese.

register

十日 is the literary/written form; in everyday speech you would say 十天 (shí tiān). Choose 十日 for formal documents, dates, and titles.