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.

64 questions
12
votes
4 answers

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
  • 223
  • 1
  • 6
12
votes
1 answer

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
  • 1,351
  • 10
  • 13
7
votes
3 answers

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
  • 173
  • 3
6
votes
5 answers

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
  • 856
  • 7
  • 17
6
votes
4 answers

一、 marker meaning? Ordinal number?

What does the drop in 一、 mean?
rxmnnxfpvg
  • 880
  • 4
  • 16
4
votes
2 answers

Why people more frequently say "三四个", less frequently say "三五个" or "四五个" or "五六个", and even more less frequently say "四六个"？

Here are the numbers of my google searh result with inverted commas: 三五个：11,400,000 三四个：33,800,000 四五个：14,500,000 五六个：12,600,000 四六个：4,710,000 As can be observed, the frequency of "三四个" stands out among others and the frequency of "四六个" is…
Zuriel
  • 2,005
  • 8
  • 22
4
votes
7 answers

When should I use 兆 instead of 万亿?

In the following sentence: 据悉，日本政府此次提出了在东京奥运会召开的2020年，使访日游客增至4000万人次，消费额达到8万亿日元的目标。 In this sentence, 万亿 is used instead of 兆, to express 10^12 digit. In Chinese, now 兆(zhào) might be rarely used to express "trillion" and instead 万亿 is used. So…
Blaszard
  • 5,434
  • 4
  • 32
  • 76
3
votes
6 answers

When Chinese speakers read Arabic numbers, do they still read them in Chinese?

Often you see Arabic numbers among Chinese texts for example: 我想要321餃子 would that be read as "three hundred" or as "三百二十一"? This may seem obvious but thought I'd seek clarification. Learning the numbers has been a challenge, due to the different…
Henry Kingston
  • 201
  • 1
  • 5
2
votes
1 answer

How do you say the numbers from 1001-1009?

I know that for the numbers in the hundreds ending in "01" to "09" you use 零, such as 103 一百零三 509 五百零九 and so forth. Omitting the 零 here would change the meaning (一百三 = 130, 五百九 = 590). How about numbers in the thousands ending in "001" to "009"?…
Peter Olson
  • 659
  • 3
  • 11
2
votes
2 answers

Notes in reading money in Chinese (using 两 and 零）

How should one read "3.24元"? a)三块二毛四 b)三块两毛四 also, "15.08元": a)十五块八分 b)十五块零八分 also, "4.52元" a) 四块五毛二分 b) 四块五毛两分
Mohammad Talebi
  • 1,305
  • 3
  • 8
2
votes
3 answers

质数 vs 素数​​​​​​​​

质数 and 素数 both mean "prime numbers" in chinese. What's the difference in their nuances and usage?
Pacerier
  • 395
  • 2
  • 12
1
vote
2 answers

Ordinal and Cardinal Numbers

I read in a book: 四声(sì​shēng) which is translated in the book as "the four tones" Somewhere else in the same book, I read: 三声变调(sānshēngbiàn​diào) which is translated as "The third tone sandhi" In the first example, (number+noun) is translated as a…
Mohammad Talebi
  • 1,305
  • 3
  • 8
1
vote
3 answers

Is there an equivalent of "alpha, beta..." for enumeration of software in Chinese?

In English I can do: 1, 2, 3... I, II, III... alpha, beta... (for instance, the "alpha version" of a software) What options are available for enumerations in Chinese? Specially to identify versions of not yet released software? 一，二，三... ? I know…
Rodrigo
  • 698
  • 1
  • 5
  • 13
1
vote
3 answers

How many 虾 are 三只半虾？

I was reading about 《三只半虾》 齐白石， 以画虾享誉画坛。 三只虾：3 prawns 半虾：half a prawn 一半只虾： half a prawn 三只半虾：3 and 1 half prawns?? or 3 half prawns = 1 and 1 half prawns?? *三半只虾？？？= ？
Pedroski
  • 18,287
  • 3
  • 18
  • 38
1
vote
2 answers

Should 118 be read as 一百一十八 or 一百十八?

Should the number 118 be read as 一百一十八 or 一百十八? A related question: How to read 2018年? 两千零一十八年? 二千零一十八年? 二零一八年? 两千零十八年? 二千零十八年?
Zuriel
  • 2,005
  • 8
  • 22
1
2