第一次

dìyī cì

noun

Meanings

HSK 1

这是我第一次来中国。

Zhè shì wǒ dìyī cì lái Zhōngguó.

This is my first time in China.

HSK 4

她第一次一个人出国，心里有点紧张。

Tā dìyī cì yí ge rén chūguó, xīnli yǒudiǎn jǐnzhāng.

Going abroad on her own for the first time, she felt a little nervous.

HSK 5

我第一次吃火锅的时候，辣得直流眼泪。

Wǒ dìyī cì chī huǒguō de shíhou, là de zhí liú yǎnlèi.

The first time I had hotpot, it was so spicy my eyes kept watering.

usage

第一次 is the everyday way to say it. News and formal writing prefer 首次, and polite set phrases use 初次, as in 初次见面 'pleased to meet you'.

mistakes

In 第一 the 一 is an ordinal, so it keeps its first tone even before the fourth-tone 次: dìyī cì. Compare 一次 'once', where it changes to yí.

第 dì

一 yī

次 cì