世纪问题

[gegehuhu]

Does the expression of centuries in Mandarin Chinese follow the same format as that taken by English?

That is to say, when one says 十九世纪, do they mean the century lasting from 1800-1899, as is meant by the English "Nineteenth Century".

Or does the Chinese 十九世纪 actually mean the century lasting from 1900-1999?

This is quite an important thing to straighten out.

[chrix]

Actually, your definition of the English word is incorrect. In English, and many other Western languages, a century starts with the year 1, i.e. the 20th century began with the year 1901 and ended with the year 2000 (this is because there was no year 0, the 1st century thus started with the year 1 and ended with the year 100). Of course this didn't stop people from celebrating the millennium one year too early

[skylee]

That is to say, when one says 十九世纪, do they mean the century lasting from 1800-1899, as is meant by the English "Nineteenth Century".

yes.

[Kenny同志]

The nineteenth century is in Chinese 十九世纪, a period lasting from 1801 to 1900.

Check 世纪at the ever useful 百度百科 at: http://baike.baidu.com/view/109486.htm

Chrix was right.