Neutral

Rooster and Tiger

Neutral

68%

No traditional aspect between these signs — neither reinforced nor opposed. What happens depends on the people rather than the pattern.

Metal · Yin

Rooster

Brings. Notices detail others miss and says so. Prepares more thoroughly than required.

Struggles with. Critical out loud, and mistakes bluntness for honesty.

Wood · Yang

Tiger

Brings. Acts when others hesitate, and inspires people to follow without asking them to.

Struggles with. Burns hot and short. Authority provokes rather than restrains it.

Distance on the wheel5 of 12
RelationNeutral
Same fixed elementNo

How Chinese compatibility works

The rule is positional. Animals four apart form an affinity triangle and are read as natural allies — they share instincts and pace. Animals six apart sit directly opposite and are the traditional clash: each values what the other neglects.

This differs from Western astrology, which uses angles on a 360-degree circle. Here the wheel has twelve positions and the relationships are counted in steps, not degrees.

Traditional pairings sometimes override the geometry — a few combinations are named explicitly as friends or enemies in the old texts, and those take precedence.

The full 144-pair grid →

Computed from 110 years of real lunar new year dates

The arithmetic behind this pairing

Chinese years run 354 or 384 days, so each animal collects a different number of days across the century — the shares below are not 8.33% each.

Positions apart on the cycle 5
Pairings at this distance 12 of 78
Days assigned to Rooster 3,305 · 8.3%
Days assigned to Tiger 3,277 · 8.23%
Share of all pairings 1.366%

5 positions apart · 12 of 78 pairings share that distance · 1.366% of all pairings. Neither trine nor clash, where most pairings sit.

Possible age gaps — fixed by the cycle

Because the animals sit at fixed positions, two people with these signs can only differ in age by certain numbers of years. Not approximately — exactly these:

5 years apart
7 years apart
17 years apart
19 years apart
29 years apart
31 years apart
41 years apart
43 years apart

Recent birth-year combinations

Earth Rooster 2029 & Water Tiger 2022 7 years apart
Fire Rooster 2017 & Metal Tiger 2010 7 years apart
Fire Rooster 2017 & Water Tiger 2022 5 years apart
Wood Rooster 2005 & Earth Tiger 1998 7 years apart
Wood Rooster 2005 & Metal Tiger 2010 5 years apart
Water Rooster 1993 & Fire Tiger 1986 7 years apart
Water Rooster 1993 & Earth Tiger 1998 5 years apart
Metal Rooster 1981 & Wood Tiger 1974 7 years apart

The five versions of each animal

The animal repeats every 12 years but the element every 60, so each partner comes in five variants — and the combination you actually have is one of 25.

Water Rooster 1993
Wood Rooster 2005
Fire Rooster 2017
Earth Rooster 2029
Metal Rooster 1981
Fire Tiger 1986
Earth Tiger 1998
Metal Tiger 2010
Water Tiger 2022
Wood Tiger 1974

Birth years for this pairing

⚠️ Each year starts at the lunar new year, not 1 January — if either of you was born in January or early February, check the exact date before trusting the animal.

Rooster

1969 · 1981 · 1993 · 2005 · 2017 · 2029

Tiger

1962 · 1974 · 1986 · 1998 · 2010 · 2022