Learn Chinese for Free - Lesson 6
Today's Chinese characters:
两百千万
Today we're going to learn how to correctly say in Chinese "two persons" and how to count from 100 to 99,999,999.
| Character Knowledge Meter |
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4.41%
Today with this lesson your knowledge of Chinese characters will reach 4.41% of all the Chinese language usage! |
Characters' Essentials
| - | Two. 两 is generally used before measure words. Don't use 二 |
| - | Hundred |
| - | Thousand |
| - | Ten thousand |
Description and Examples
As said explaining the different use of 二 and 两, 二 is generally not used before measure words.
Infact, the correct Chinese phrase for "two persons" is:
两个人 translation: two persons
Numbers Key Points
The method that I personally use to figure in my mind numbers in Chinese is to associate the five (we've studied four of them until now) numbers key characters to the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 zeros numbers, that are tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of millions.
1 zero numbers
The key Chinese character for 1 zero numbers is 十.
The Chinese character after it indicates units, the one before it indicates tens.
Only remember that numbers from 10 to 19 don't have 一 before 十, and that "zero" is never written or read when at the end of a number (as in 10, 20, 30 or 100, 2000, 30000).
Examples
十五 fifteen
五十五 fifty-five
九十 ninety
2 zeros numbers
Key Chinese character is 百.
After it we would put numbers from 1 to 99, as explained under the preceding subtitle (in this case, numbers from 10 to 19 do have 一 before 十).
The Chinese character before 百 indicates hundreds (一 must be written to indicate one hundred).
Examples
一百 one hundred
一百一十 one hundred and ten
三百 three-hundred
三百三十 three-hundred and thirty
三百三十三 three-hundred and thirty-three
I've not mentioned numbers from 101 to 109 because you still don't know how to say and write "zero". Tomorrow you'll study the character for "zero", even if it's not among the 1000 most used Chinese characters.
PRONUNCIATION RULE: When two third tones are in succession, the first third tone changes into a second tone, that is: 3rd + 3rd changes into 2nd + 3rd. For example, 五百 wu3 bai3 (meaning: 500) is actually pronounced as wu2 bai3; and 九百 jiu3 bai3 (meaning: 900) is pronounced jiu2 bai3. |
3 zeros numbers
Key Chinese character: 千.
The Chinese character before it indicates thousands. After it, numbers from 1 to 999 as said above.
Examples
一千 one thousand
九千九百九十九 nine-thousand nine-hundred ninety-nine
4 zeros numbers
Chinese language has a single key character for four zeros numbers: 万.
The Chinese character before it indicates tens of thousands. It's followed by numbers from 1 to 9999 written as usual.
Examples
一万 ten-thousand
一万二千 twelve-thousand
四万四千四百四十四 forty-four thousand four-hundred forty-four
8 zeros numbers
Chinese language has also a single key character indicating hundreds of millions. It's not among the 1000 most used Chinese characters. Anyway, in order to complete the subject "numbers", tomorrow you'll study it together with the character for "zero".
Exercise
Pronounce as fast as possible the following numbers:
11,111
33,333
99,999
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Characters' Details
Chinese Character 14 of 1000
appearance score: # 133
frequency: 0.1522449%
| - | Two, 2 |
| - | (ATTENTION Use of 二 and 两: 两 is generally used before measure words and before 半. 二 is always used when counting, as decimal number, as fraction, as percentage, as ordinal number, before 百, before 十 or as unit. Both can be used before Chinese traditional measures of length, capacity or weight, but 二 is used more frequently. Infact, one must say 二两, cannot say 两两. Before modern measures of length, capacity or weight as kilometer or ton, 两 is used more frequently instead. Both can be used before 千, 万, and 亿. Anyway, in numbers with 千 preceded by 万 or 亿, before 千 is used more frequently 二.) |
| - | Some, few |
| - | Both (sides), either (side) |
| - | (A measure word, that is a unit of weight = 50 grams) |
This character has a different traditional version.
Chinese Character 15 of 1000
appearance score: # 407
frequency: 0.0537136%
There's no difference between the simplified and the traditional version of this character.
Chinese Character 16 of 1000
appearance score: # 599
frequency: 0.0350602%
There's no difference between the simplified and the traditional version of this character.
Chinese Character 17 of 1000
appearance score: # 322
frequency: 0.0693629%
| - | Ten-thousand, 10000; myriad, all |
| - | Extremely |
| - | (A surname) |
| - | (First character of the Chinese surname  pinyin: mo4 qi2) |
This character has a different traditional version.
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