7.10: Other numbered sets

Telephone numbers

‘Telephone number’ is diànhuà hàomǎ (‘telephone + number’). Asking about phone numbers makes use of the question words duōshao or shénme:

<Nǐ de> diànhuà <hàomǎ> shi duōshao?	What's your phone number?
<Nǐ de> diànhuà <hàomǎ> shi shénme?

Local phone numbers in major Mainland cities generally have 7 or 8 digits, ie 3 + 4 or 4 + 4. (Area codes have 0 + 2 or 3 digits.) To state phone numbers, you need to know that ‘zero’ is líng; and that on the Mainland (but not Taiwan), the number ‘one’ (in strings of numbers, such as telephone numbers) is yāo rather than yī.

Wŏ jiā lĭ de diànhuà shi: (bāliùyāolíng) liù’èrwǔliù-jiŭ’èrsānsān. Wŏ de shŏujī shì: (yāosānliùbā) yāosìbā sānqī’èrbā. Zài shuō yì biān:  (yāosānliùbā) yāosìbā sānqī’èrbā.

My home phone is: (8610) 6256-9233. My cell is (1368) 148-3728.  [I]’ll repeat it (‘again say one time’): (1368) 148-3728.

Diànhuà ‘electric-speech’ is the word for an ordinary telephone, but in China people are more likely to talk about their shǒujī ‘mobile-phone (hand-machine)’. A variation on shǒujī is xiǎolíngtōng ‘small-lively-communicator’, a cheap mobile phone that can be used only in a single locale.

Days of the week

The traditional Chinese lunar month was divided into three periods (xún) of 10 days each. But when the western calendar was adopted, a term lǐbài, itself a compound of lǐ ‘ceremony; reverence’ and bài ‘pay respects’, which had been adapted by Christians to mean ‘worship’, was used to name days of the week. Nowadays, the word xīngqī ‘starperiod’ is preferred in print, at least on the Mainland, but lǐbài continues as the main colloquial form. The days of the week are formed by the addition of numerals, beginning with yī for Monday. [Unlike in the US, the calendrical week begins with Monday in China, not Sunday.]

Monday	lǐbàiyī	xīngqīyī
Tuesday	lǐbài’èr	xīngqī’èr
Wednesday	lǐbàisān	xīngqīsān
Thursday	lǐbàisì	xīngqīsì
Friday	lǐbàiwǔ	xīngqīwǔ
Saturday	lǐbàiliù	xīngqīliù
Sunday	lǐbàitiān	xīngqītiān
(Sunday	lǐbàirì	xīngqīrì)

Since the variable for days of the week is a number, the question is formed with jǐ ‘how many’: lǐbàijǐ ~ xīngqījǐ ‘what day of the week’. Notice that there is no *lǐbàiqī or *xīngqīqī to confuse with lǐbàijǐ and xīngqījǐ.

‘Daily’ can be expressed as měitiān ‘everyday’. And a period of time covering several consecutive days can be expressed with cóng ‘from’ and dào ‘to’: <cóng> lǐbàiyī dào <lǐbài> sì ‘<from> Monday to Thursday’.

Jīntiān lǐbàijǐ?	What’s the day today?
Jīntiān lǐbàiyī.	It’s Monday.
Míngtiān lǐbài’èr, shì bu shi?	Tomorrow’s Tuesday, isn’t it?
Shì, zuótiān shi lǐbàitiān.	Yes, yesterday was Sunday.
Lǐbài’èr yǒu kǎoshì ma?	Is/was there an exam on Tuesday?
Yǒu, dànshi lǐbàisān méiyou kè.	Yes, but there are no classes on Wednesday.
Xīngqīsì hěn máng.	[I]’m busy on Thursday.
Xīngqīwǔ xíng ma?	Will Friday work?
Mĕitiān dōu yǒu kè ma?	Do you have class everyday?
Bù, xīngqīyī dào <xīngqī>sì dōu yǒu, dànshì xīngqīwŭ méiyŏu.	No, Monday to Thursday I do, but not on Friday.

Notes

Recall that in giving dates, eg jīntiān xīngqīyī, shì is often omitted if no adverbs are present. In the negative, shì would appear as support for the adverb, bu: Jīntiān bú shì xīngqīyī.

Days of the month

Days of the month are formed, quite regularly, with hào, which in this context means ‘number’:

Jīntiān jǐ hào?	What’s the date today?
Èrshísān hào.	The 23rd.
Èrshíwǔ hào hěn máng – yǒu Zhōngwén kǎoshì.	[We]’re busy on the 25th – there’s a Chinese test.

a) Names of the months

The names of the months are also quite regular, formed with the word yuè ‘moon; month’ (often expanded to yuèfèn) and a number: sānyuè ‘March,’ liùyuèfèn ‘June’, shíyīyuè ‘November’. As with the other date elements, the question is formed with jǐ ‘how many’:

Jīntiān jǐyuè jǐ hào?	What’s the date today?
Jīntiān liùyuè èrshí’èr hào.	Today’s June 22st.
Shíyuè sān hào yǒu kǎoshì.	There’s a test on October 3rd.
Wǔyuè yí hào shi Guóqìng jié suǒyǐ méiyou kè.	May 1st is National Day so there are no classes.

Notice that expressions that designate ‘time when’ precede their associated verbs!

Siblings

The collective for brothers and sisters is xiōngdì-jiěmèi. Older brother is gēge; xiōng is an archaic equivalent; but the other syllables are all single-syllable reflections of the independent words for siblings: dìdi ‘younger brother’, jiějie ‘older sister’ and mèimei ‘younger sister’.

Nĭ yǒu xiōngdì-jiěmèi ma?	Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Yǒu <yí> ge dìdi, yí ge mèimei.	[I] have a younger brother, and a y. sis.
Yǒu méiyou xiōngdì-jiĕmèi?	Do [you] have any brothers or sisters?
Wŏ zhǐ yǒu <yí> ge jiĕjie.	I only have an older sister.
Hăoxiàng nĭ yǒu <yí> ge gēge,  duì ma?	Seems like you have an older brother, right?
Méiyou, zhǐ yǒu <yí> ge jiĕjie.	No, only an older sister.

Note

In object position, the yí of yí ge is often elided, as indicated by ge.

Yígòng ‘altogether; in all’

Yígòng is an adverb meaning ‘all together; in all’, but because it is more versatile than prototypical adverbs such as yě and dōu, it is classified as a ‘moveable adverb’. Moveable adverbs, unlike regular ones, can sometimes appear without a following verb:

Jīntiān yígòng yǒu duōshao xuésheng?	How many students today?
Yígòng yǒu shíqī ge.	There are 17 altogether!
Yígòng duōshao qián?	How much money altogether?
Yígòng yìqiān liǎngbǎi kuài.	Altogether, Y1200.

Exercise 8.

1. Tell them what your phone number is.

2. Let them know today’s date.

3. Ask how many students there are today altogether?

4. Explain that you have a younger brother and an older sister.

5. Explain that there’s an exam on October 30th.

6. Explain that you only have a dollar.

7. Explain that you’re feeling quite anxious -- because you have so many exams!

8. Explain that you have an exam everyday from Monday to Thursday.