Understanding 年頭 in context

Question

As part of my efforts to improve my Chinese, I read various books. I just started one. In the first sentences, the author uses 年頭 instead of 時期。I searched the dictionary and found various meanings:

• start of the year
• period
• epoch
• days
• year's harvest

Do I understand correctly, that here it means period?

This is the first of the periods I spent in France for advanced studies.

Does it differ from other "periods", such as 時間，時期？

Answer 1

• When 「年頭」 means "start of the year" 「頭」 means " start of / beginning of "

• When 「年頭」 means period, epoch or days, 「頭」 means " unit of "

• The word 「年」 doesn't take classifier because 「年」itself can function as a classifier or measuring word, we say 「一年」，but not 「一個年」, the same way we say 「一英里」(one mile), but not 「一個英里」(one a mile)

• The word 「年頭」 is a countable noun that must take a classifier when counting, we say 「一個年頭」 but not 「一年頭」

Both 「我到法國的第一年 」and 「我到法國的第一個年頭」mean " the first year I was in France" but 「我到法國的第一年」 empathize 年 as a length of time, while 「我到法國的第一個年頭」 empathize number of year(s) that is being counted.

「我坐了十年監」 (I spent ten years in prison ) that is a long time

「我坐了十個年頭的監」(I spent ten years in prison) that is a lot of years

• 「determiner +年頭」= determiner + period / determiner + days

Example :

「日治那些年頭.」 "The period when Japanese were occupying."

「二次大戰那些年頭.」 "Those days in WWII."

「這年頭求職不易」"These days, finding job is hard."

Answer 2

年头 just means year in this sentence。

I think this online dictionary will help you.

http://www.zdic.net/c/4/4/8606.htm

◎ 年头，年头儿 niántóu,niántóur

(1) [year]∶年份

我到北京已经三个年头了。

(2) [years]∶时代;年月

这年头工人农民的生活好起来了。

(3) [harvest]∶年成;年景

今年又是丰收的好年头。

Answer 3

Often this kind of expression (xx头) is frequently seen in literature works or in a vulgar tone, in my opinion, there is a simple way to find out it's meaning in the context:

1. Modify 年头 with a definite ordinal number, e.g. 第1个年头，第2个年头，第10个，第n个年头，in such case, 年头 simply means year, the first year, the second year, etc.
2. Modify 年头 with other determiners or quantifiers, such as：这（this）年头，那（that）年头，那些（those）年头，有一些（there have been some）年头了，for these cases it means an indefinite period of time, or years.

so the translations would be:

这年头：these years（pay attention that it's not 'this years' because it's talking about an indefinite period of time instead of a specific year, so you have to make it plural/unspecific in English.

那年头：those years

这些年头：equals to 这年头，both talk about unspecific period.

那些年头：equals to 那年头

有些年头了，有好些年头了：there have been some years that ...

Also you may encounter another similar expression "这日头，这些日头，那日头，那些日头，有些日头了", what you need to do is to replace "year" with "day":

这/那些日头：these/those days

我学中文有些日头了：I have been learning Chinese for many days.

As I know, besides these two usage, there isn't 这月头、这时头，这分头，这秒头，etc.