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7.2: Amount

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    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 . 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?


    This page titled 7.2: Amount is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Julian K. Wheatley (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.