7.2: Amount
- Page ID
- 89654
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As you know, numbers in Chinese are well behaved: 11 is 10-1, 12 is 10-2; 20 is 2-10 and 30, 3-10; 41 is 4-10-1, etc. Higher numbers, also quite regular, are based on bǎi ‘100’, qiān ‘1000’ and wàn ’10,000’.
| sānshí | sìshísān | jiǔshijiǔ | yìbǎi |
| 30 | 43 | 99 | 100 |
| yìbǎi wǔshísān | bābǎi sānshí | ||
| 153 | 830 | ||
| yìqiān | yíwàn | yìbǎiwàn | |
| 1000 | 10000 | 1 million |
Notes
a) Notice the use of the apostrophe to clarify syllable boundaries in those cases where a final vowel of one syllable meets an initial vowel of another: shí’èr. In large numbers, pinyin conventions write spaces between numbers built around a particular multiple of ten, eg: yìbǎi bāshíbā ‘188’.
b) You will have more need to use large numbers when the subject is population, as in §8.3. In Chinese, there is a root for 10,000 (wàn), but not for a million; the latter is based on wàn: liǎngbǎiwàn ‘2 million’ (ie 200 x 10,000).
Some more measure phrases
Drinks can be measured with bēi ‘cup; glass’ or píng ‘bottle’. Cups, bēizi, on the other hand, and bottles píngzi, are measured with gè. Books are measured with bĕn ‘stem; binding’. Vehicles, including bicycles, are measured with liàng (falling tone); however, in Taiwan Mandarin, bicycles are often measured with jià ‘frame’.
| yì bēi chá | liăng bēi kāfēi | sān bēi qìshuǐ | sì bēi |
| a cup of tea | 2 cups of coffee | 3 glasses of soda | 4 cups [of…] |
| yì píng píjiŭ | liăng píng kĕlè | sì píng jiŭ | sān píng |
| a bottle of beer | 2 bottles of cola | 4 bottles of wine | 3 bottles [of…] |
| yí ge bēizi | liăng ge píngzi | sān ge bēizi | sì ge |
| 1 item cup | 2 items bottle | 3 items cup | 4 [of them] |
| yì bĕn shū | liăng bĕn zìdiăn | sān bĕn shū | shí bĕn |
| a book | 2 dictionaries | 3 books | 10 [of them] |
| yí liàng chēzi | liăng liàng qìchē | yí liàng zìxíngchē | sān jià dānchē |
| a car | 2 automobiles | a bike | 3 bikes [Taiwan] |
edit notes: 8.3 reference fix?