Chinese Language Stack Exchange
Chinese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [number]

Questions about Chinese numbers and counting.

Numbers in Chinese are:

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十

Additional characters are used to indicate:

  • 零 zero
  • 百 hundred
  • 千 thousand
  • 万 (t: 萬) ten thousand
  • 亿 (t: 億）hundred million

Please use this tag for questions that involve numbers and their representation.

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Number two in chinese: 二 vs 两

I always knew, from my studies of Japanese, that the number two is 二 (èr). I am not sure about the actual etymology, but looking at the character, it's understandable why it represents the number "2". Recently, I discovered that there is another…
Alenanno
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Why is 两 used for quantities of two rather than 二?

I understand that 两 is used instead of 二 when dealing with quantities of two. However, my question is - why? What are the historical reasons behind this? I looked at Wikitionary but it only had historical information for when 两 is used to mean the…
Jimmy S
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Where should I place the comma in large numbers?

If writing for an exclusively Chinese audience, would the number 五萬 be written as 5,0000 or 50,000? To flesh out the question, we could consider: 五千 5000 or 5,000 五萬 5,0000 or 50,000 五十萬 50,0000 or 500,000 五百萬 500,0000 or…
user6546
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Why is this Chinese clock so strange?

In the classical 1932 American film Shanghai Express starring Marlene Dietrich, the story is going on in 1931 in China on the Beijing–Shanghai railroad, and several times in the course of the film in order to show what time it is, a very…
Yellow Sky
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Rules for saying numbers

I just wondered what are the rules of saying numbers... For example: 10 = 十 19 = 十九 100 = 一百 1,000 = 一千 10,000 = 一萬 but 119 = 一百一十九 then 110 = 一百一 1,100 = 一千一 11,000 = 一萬一 and then 10,110 = 一萬零一百一十 Is there any rule of thumb??
Georgeee
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10
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Different pronunciation for the number 'one'?

I was talking to my friend (native Chinese) the other day and when she read out a phone number she said "yao" for all the "ones" in the phone number. However, as far as I remember, for all other cases she says it normally - eg. "yi ge" when counting…
pyko
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份, 个, 本, 两: How do they function in these sentences?

I've been working with Rosetta Stone for about 2 weeks now, and due to the immersion (from the start, the entire program is entirely Chinese—no English anywhere), they don't do any explaining of grammatical concepts, they just demonstrate them. I've…
nickcoxdotme
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Syntax of 'Number Number MeasureWord'

What are the rules governing expressions such as 七八成 (seventy or eighty percent) or 一两个 (one or two)? Must the numerals be monosyllables? What are the restrictions on the measure words? Can there be at most two numerals?
jogloran
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Are there more special numerals like 廿?

In Hong Kong herbal tea shops, you will see a tea called "廿四味" (24 flavours) (you will also hear "廿蚊" to mean "20 dollars" in small shops) In this case 廿 (niàn or pán) has the meaning "20". Are there any other chinese numerals that represent unusual…
Matthew Rudy 马泰
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Does 兩點九 mean 2:09 or 2:45?

I heard somebody using 兩點九 and I thought he means 2:09. Actually, by 兩點九 he means 兩點九個字, or 2:45. Does 兩點九 have two different meanings? Or does it always mean 2:45?
Zuriel
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When do we use "廿", "卅" and "卌"?

I am aware of a related question and I know that "廿" means 20. "卅" means 30. "卌" means 40. But I am wondering how to use them correctly. When and how do we use "廿", "卅" and "卌"? For example, are the following sentences gramatically…
Zuriel
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How to write 400,002,000 in Chinese properly?

I got a number, 400,002,000, I wonder how to read it? Should it be one of these two? Or something else? 四亿零二千 四亿二千
abcdabcd987
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How would I say £10.50?

I'm not sure if it is simply said, "10 英镑 50"？ In the UK we often drop the pence at the end and just state the decimal amount (10 pounds 50), but not sure if in Chinese it works the same. Any help appreciated.
jaffa
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Why do we have to say 一百 一千 but not 一十?

This has always stumped me as all other base 10 numbers (>10) in Chinese you declare 1 through 9 for the quantity [1] of these units but you only have to declare 2 through 9 for 十 as 1 is implied [2] So is there reason behind this or just a quirk in…
50-3
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What's the relationship between "separate" and "eight" (old and modern meanings of 八)?

Zhongwen.com says that 八 is an "ideograph representing division", what is easy to see. So the old meaning of "separate" is also clear. But how did it came to represent the number 8? All I've found so far is its association with 发 (发财), thus with…
Rodrigo
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