Chinese zodiac
Year of the Goat in the Chinese zodiac
Leon·Updated November 10, 2026·6 minThe goat is the eighth animal of the Chinese zodiac. The goat years are 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 and 2027.
The goat is , yáng. The same word means sheep and ram, so English sources also say the Year of the Sheep. The next goat year starts on 6 February 2027.
The words below come with pinyin, a meaning and audio: tap one. It is how you read in Dengdeng, our app for stories from China at four levels.
Goat years
A goat year starts at Chinese New Year, so the dates are different every time. If your birthday is in January or February, check the start date.
| Year | Element | Name | Starts | Ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027 | Fire | 6 Feb 2027 | 25 Jan 2028 | |
| 2015 | Wood | 19 Feb 2015 | 7 Feb 2016 | |
| 2003 | Water | 1 Feb 2003 | 21 Jan 2004 | |
| 1991 | Metal | 15 Feb 1991 | 3 Feb 1992 | |
| 1979 | Earth | 28 Jan 1979 | 15 Feb 1980 | |
| 1967 | Fire | 9 Feb 1967 | 29 Jan 1968 | |
| 1955 | Wood | 24 Jan 1955 | 11 Feb 1956 | |
| 1943 | Water | 5 Feb 1943 | 24 Jan 1944 | |
| 1931 | Metal | 17 Feb 1931 | 5 Feb 1932 |
The 2027 year has its own page.
Saying you are a goat
我属羊。
I'm a goat.
我也属羊！
I'm a goat too!
To ask, say ？ The zodiac page explains how people use the question to ask your age.
What people say about goats
In the folk tradition, people born in goat years are gentle, kind and creative. They like peace and quiet and get on with most people. The other side is that they worry a lot and find it hard to decide.
These are the same kind of folk beliefs as Western star signs. People quote them for fun.
Which signs go with the goat
- Get along: the rabbit and the pig, the goat's group of , "three harmonies". The horse is the goat's other good match.
- Clash: the ox, which is six places away in the cycle.
in everyday Chinese
is one of the oldest characters. It began as a drawing of a goat's head with two horns, and you can still see them in the two strokes on top.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| goat; literally "mountain " | |
| sheep; literally "soft " | |
| lamb; kid | |
| lamb or mutton | |
| lamb skewers, the street food of the north and the west | |
| wool | |
| scapegoat | |
| Pleasant Goat, the hero of a popular children's cartoon |
Two sayings use for money:
- : "the wool comes from the sheep". A free gift is never free: the customer pays for it in the end.
- : "to pluck wool". Online, it means to hunt for coupons, free trials and deals.
The goat idiom
, "mend the pen after a sheep is lost", means that it is not too late to fix a problem. A man lost a sheep through a hole in the pen, and his neighbor told him to fix it. He did not, lost another one, and then fixed it in time to save the rest.
The Dengdeng dictionary has the full story of 亡羊补牢, with examples.
Common questions
What years are the Year of the Goat?
1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 and 2027. Each one starts at Chinese New Year, between late January and mid-February.
Is it the Year of the Goat or the Sheep?
Both are correct. means goat, sheep and ram.
When is the next Year of the Goat?
From Saturday 6 February 2027 to Tuesday 25 January 2028. It is a fire goat year, .
Which zodiac signs are compatible with the goat?
By tradition, the rabbit, the pig and the horse. The ox is said to clash with the goat.
The dates on this page come from the open-source calendar library lunar-python, checked against the State Council holiday schedules.
To read Chinese beyond single words, start with today's stories. One from each edition is free, at Beginner, Easy, Medium or Hard.
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