My Mandarin speaking wife prefers Xīngqīri 星期日 over Xīngqītiān 星期天 to express Sunday. Which is most common in spoken Chinese. My wife is from Hunan is this the difference? Which would be spoken in Beijing? KDM

Hi Kenneth, Thank you for your question. Both 星期日 and 星期天 are used interchangeably throughout China. Some areas may tend to use one slightly more than the other, however you are simply likely to hear both in any region you go to. I hope this helps and keep on learning! - Lin Ping

Lin, what is the difference between 日 and 天？ From what I understand, both mean "day". Is there any difference between them or are they just simply synonyms?

Hi Jaime_Andres, On the whole yes they both mean 'day' but they has slight differences. 日 actually means 'sun' and is used more when we talk about dates. 天 on the other hand means 'sky' or 'heaven' but is used in most other instances when we would say 'day'. For example: today's date would be written 2011年11月1日 NOT 2011年11月1天 and 'today' would be said 今天 as opposed to 今日 which is less used. I hope this helps and keep up the good work! - Lin Ping

Isn't xingqitian more used in Beijing?

I've been in china for 2&1/2 yr.. Beijing, Weihai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Hainan and my wife is also from Hunan. I can not recall ever hearing, xingqiri !