Learn how to say numbers 100 to 10000
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| Amber: Welcome back to Basic Bootcamp. This 5-part series will help you ease your way into Chinese. |
| Victor: We’ll go over all the basics that will really help you understand Chinese much quicker and easier |
| Amber: In this lesson we’ll continue on with more of the essentials of Chinese Numbers. In this lesson we will venture into higher number territory… the over 100s to the ten thousands. |
| Victor: You’ll be listening to a person who is placing an order for stock with a warehouse. |
| Amber: Probably a common China occurrence! |
| But before we get to the numbers…Insert cookie cutter marketing piece here. |
| Let’s listen to the numbers in Chinese: |
| A: 100, 200, 470, 621, 1000, 3590, 7,880, 10000 |
| A: 100, 200, 470, 621, 1000, 3590, 7,880, 10000 |
| A: 100, 200, 470, |
| (English Translation) |
| A: 621, 1000, 3590 |
| (English Translation) |
| A: 7,880, 10000 |
| (English Translation) |
| Amber: So, let’s use these numbers a little. Let’s talk about prices in China. |
| Victor: Well I think that prices do vary a lot. |
| Amber: Yes it depends where you are and what you eat. |
| What’s the price of an average meal in (country)? What about a very nice meal in (country)? |
| # (in language) |
| # (in English) |
| # (Slowly in language) |
| # (in language) |
| (repeat as necessary) |
| Ok let’s take a look at how to construct/use these numbers |
| So in the last bootcamp about numbers, we learned that Eleven in Chinese is "ten one". Twelve is "ten two", and so on. Twenty is "Two ten", twenty-one is "two ten one" (2Victor10 + 1), and so on up to 99. One-hundred is "one hundred". |
| Then we learned that 100 in Chinese is ‘yibai’. So now how do we start forming numbers over 100? Well a lot of it is the same principle. |
| One-hundred and one is "one hundred zero one". |
| Victor: So, in chinese, yi bai ling yi. |
| Amber: Let’s break that dow. Yi bai is 100. ling is zero. Yi is one. OK what if it was 111? |
| Victor: Well remember for 11 we only had to say ‘ten one’ or ‘shi yi’. Well in the higher numbers, you actually need to do it a little different. |
| Amber: So 11 is shi yi. How about 111? |
| Victor: You have to add in an extra 1 that you don’t with the 11. Listen |
| Amber: So like 100 one ten one. NOT 100 ten one. |
| Victor: Yes that is a special point about the numbers. |
| Amber: A number glitch. |
| Victor: Yes, in the larger numbers, you must add the extra "one" when reading them out. |
| Amber: Now we move on to read numbers one thousand and above. It is done in a similar fashion. First, Victor, give us the word for thousands. |
| Victor: qian1. |
| Amber: So 1000? |
| Victor: yi qian |
| Amber: 4000? |
| Victor: si qian |
| Amber: Good, so literally 4, 1000. So let’s ramp it up a bit. What about a number over 1000 that is a bit more of a mixed bag. Let’s try a random |
| Victor: That would be yi qian, wu bai, jiushi. |
| Amber: Ok so that translated is literally 1 thousand, 5 hundreds, 9, 10. |
| Victor: Yes, (repeats) |
| Amber: So the formula with numbers in the 1000s is, first you say how many thousands you have, then how many hundreds, then tens, then ones. |
| Victor: Let’s try another. |
| Amber: OK 2,463 |
| Victor: So here we have liang qian si bai liushi san. |
| Amber: Literally |
| Victor: Ah yes, here comes another little ‘number glitch’ in Chinese. |
| Amber: Yes, there are two words for ‘2’ |
| Victor: In Mandarin, the multiplier 两 (liǎng) is used rather than 二 (èr) for all numbers greater than 200 with the "2" numeral. Use of both 两 (liǎng) or 二 (èr) are acceptable for the number 200. |
| Amber: And ok let’s just get all the glitches out in the open now. There is a little hitch for when you have a number with zeros in it as well. |
| Victor: When a zero occurs in the number (except at the end), you need to read in a "zero" or ‘ling’ in Chinese |
| Amber: But if there are two or more zeros, you only have to say it once. So can you give us an example? |
| Victor: Well say 1001 would be "one thousand zero one" |
| Amber: So in Chinese |
| Victor: yi qian ling yi |
| Amber: So you only have to say the zero once, note. |
| Victor: Yes, the one zero stands in for the hundreds and tens places. |
| Amber: How about something like 2,093? |
| Victor: liang qian ling jiu shi san. |
| Amber: Let’s have another 1000 word, Victor. |
| Victor: Sure, how about 8,888 |
| Amber: So lucky! |
| Victor: So that would be ba qian ba bai ba shi ba |
| Amber: so in equivalent English |
| Victor: Ah that’s different. They will generally just read out the numbers, as in er ling ling jiu. |
| Amber: OK good to know. |
| Victor: Now we move up… to 10,000s |
| Amber: What is different from English is that when you get to ten-thousand, Chinese has its own word (wan4) |
| Victor: Therefore, we don’t say shi qian. We actually say one wan. Or, more correctly, yi wan. |
| Amber: So yi wan is 10000. |
| Victor: I think that’s a lot of numbers |
| Amber: Yes, I am more than satisfied with my number quota of the day. |
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