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ChineseGrammarWiki


			
				
					
						
						
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<p>The manner in which large numbers are broken down in Chinese is
a little different from English. Unlike in English, where large
numbers are broken down by the number of <em>thousands</em> they
have, Chinese forms numbers between 10,000 and 100,000,000 based
off of how many <em>tens</em> of thousands they have (with another
set of rules for numbers 100,000,000 onwards that will be explained
later). While the structure can be difficult to grasp for some
learners, there are some easy ways to remember how to form these
big numbers.</p>
<h2 id="different-units">Different Units</h2>
<p>Mandarin has two units that English doesn't have (or at least,
it has unique words for these units, whereas English describes them
with combinations of other units). These are:</p>
<ul>
<li>万 (wàn): ten thousand</li>
<li>亿 (yì): hundred million</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="ten-thousand---万-wàn">Ten Thousand - 万 (wàn)</h2>
<p>万 (wàn) comes up the most often and is the largest stumbling
block for most people learning Mandarin numbers. In English,
numbers are usually broken up into chunks of three digits. Because
of 万 (wàn), it's easier to break numbers up into groups of four in
Mandarin. In English, we split "twelve thousand" numerically into
"12,000" (chunks of three digits). Split it the Chinese way,
"1,2000," and the Chinese reading "一万两千" (one <em>wan</em> and two
"thousand" = yīwàn liǎngqiān) makes more sense.</p>
<p>One way to remember how to write out numbers 10,000 through
99,999 in Chinese characters is that in Chinese, the comma is
(mentally) moved one digit to the left. For example, 11,000 could
be thought of in tens of thousands as "1,1000," with 万 (wàn)
replacing the comma, and then what's left written as 一千 (yīqiān):
一万一千 (yīwàn yīqiān).</p>
<table class="table big-text table-striped table-bordered">
<tr>
<th width="15%">
<p>Typical split</p>
</th>
<th width="15%">
<p>Chinese split</p>
</th>
<th width="25%">
<p>Characters</p>
</th>
<th width="35%">
<p>Pinyin</p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>10,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1,0000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>一万</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>yīwàn</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>12,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1,2000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>一万二</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>yīwàn èr</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13,200</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1,3200</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>一万三千两百</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>yīwàn sānqiān liǎngbǎi</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>56,700</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>5,6700</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>五万六千七百</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>wǔwàn liùqiān qībǎi</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2 id="one-hundred-million---亿-yì">One Hundred Million - 亿
(yì)</h2>
<p>After 99,999,999, there is yet another new numerical unit, 亿
(yì), which is used to express "hundred million." A number like
1,101,110,000 would be written out as "十一亿一百一十一万 (shíyī yì yībǎi
yīshí-yī wàn)." Again, an easier way to translate between the two
methods is to write the number out in English, move the comma one
digit to the left, and then insert the appropriate characters in
their respective places, replacing the commas.</p>
<h2 id="mandarin-number-structure">Mandarin Number Structure</h2>
<table class=
"table big-text big-text table-striped table-bordered">
<tr>
<th width="25%">
<p>Numerals</p>
</th>
<th width="15%">
<p>Characters</p>
</th>
<th width="20%">
<p>Pinyin</p>
</th>
<th width="30%">
<p>English</p>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1,000,000,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>十亿</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>shí yì</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Billion</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>100,000,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>亿</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>yì</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hundred million</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>10,000,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>千万</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>qiān wàn</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Ten million</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1,000,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>百万</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>bǎi wàn</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Million</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>100,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>十万</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>shí wàn</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hundred thousand</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>10,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>万</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>wàn</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Ten thousand</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1,000</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>千</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>qiān</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Thousand</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>100</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>百</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>bǎi</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hundred</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>10</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>十</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>shí</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Ten</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>一</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>yī</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>One</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2 id="a-shortcut">A Shortcut</h2>
<p>One more simple way to remember how to correctly write out large
numbers is to pick one or two numbers and just memorize them. One
million, for example, is 一百万 (yībǎi wàn). If you can memorize that,
then going to 一千万 (yīqiān wàn) is way easier and faster, since you
don't have to count all those zeroes.</p>
<p>The recommended shortcuts are:</p>
<div class="liju">
<ul>
<li>一百万 <span class="expl">frequently a useful number to
know</span><span class="pinyin">yībǎi wàn</span><span class=
"trans">1 million</span></li>
<li>十四亿 <span class="expl">this just happens to be the population
of China</span><span class="pinyin">shísì yì</span><span class=
"trans">1.4 billion</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3 id="examples">Examples</h3>
<div class="liju">
<ul>
<li>五<em>万</em> 两千 一百 五十二 <span class="pinyin">wǔ<em>wàn</em>
liǎngqiān yībǎi wǔshí-èr</span> <span class=
"trans">52,152</span></li>
<li>二百 九十一 <em>万</em> 四千 六百 八十 <span class="pinyin">èrbǎi jiǔshí-yī
<em>wàn</em> sìqiān liùbǎi bāshí</span> <span class=
"trans">2,914,680</span></li>
<li>七百 八十九 <em>万</em> 零 二百 九十八 <span class="pinyin">qībǎi bāshí-jiǔ
<em>wàn</em> líng èrbǎi jiǔshí-bā</span> <span class=
"trans">7,890,298</span></li>
<li>两千 七百 二十一 <em>万</em> 四千 八百 九十六<span class="pinyin">liǎngqiān
qībǎi èrshí-yī <em>wàn</em> sìqiān bābǎi
jiǔshí-liù</span><span class="trans">27,214,896</span></li>
<li>五 千三 百 七 十 九 <em>万</em> 八 千 两 百 五 十<span class="pinyin">wǔqiān
sānbǎi qīshí-jiǔ <em>wàn</em> bāqiān liǎngbǎi wǔshí</span>
<span class="trans">53,798,250</span></li>
<li>四<em>亿</em> 一千 四百 二十九 <em>万</em> 四千 一百 八十二 <span class=
"pinyin">sì<em>yì</em> yīqiān sìbǎi èrshí-jiǔ <em>wàn</em> sìqiān
yībǎi bāshí-èr</span> <span class="trans">414,294,182</span></li>
<li>十三 <em>亿</em> 两千 六百 八十 <em>万</em><span class="pinyin">shísān
<em>yì</em> liǎngqiān liùbǎi bāshí <em>wàn</em></span> <span class=
"trans">1,326,800,000</span></li>
<li>两百 五十一 <em>亿</em> 五千 八百 三十六 <em>万</em> 七千 二百<span class=
"pinyin">liǎngbǎi wǔshí-yī <em>yì</em> wǔqiān bābǎi sānshí-liù
<em>wàn</em> qīqiān èrbǎi</span><span class=
"trans">25,158,367,200</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="Structure_of_numbers" title="wikilink">Structure of
numbers</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="sources-and-further-reading">Sources and further
reading</h2>
<h3 id="books">Books</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href=
"http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415700108?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=allset-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0415700108">
Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide</a> (pp.
30-31)</li>
<li><a href=
"http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?_encoding=UTF8&amp;tag=allset-23&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;asin=B001J0ADWA&amp;camp=536&amp;creative=3132&amp;creativeASIN=B001J0ADWA">
外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners)</a>
(pp. 64-65)</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="Category:A2_grammar_points" title=
"wikilink">Category:A2 grammar points</a></p>
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