Chinese Language course

From nowhere to pinyin

The chinese tones

Possible combinations of initials and finals in standard Mandarin

shēngcí 1

shēngcí 2

kèwén 1

Chinese names

Greeting someone

Asking someone's name and nationality

Pronunciation of syllables and words

shengci 3

kèwén 2

The interrogative sentence

The time

liànxí 1

shēngcí 4

kèwén 3

The numbers

shēngcí 5

kèwén 4

liànxí 2

shēngcí 6

kèwén 5

shēngcí 7

kèwén 6

The numbers:

The forming of other numbers is very straightforward. Some examples can be seen below:

One important difference compared to European languages is the separate word for ten thousand. You’d most likely expect it to be “十千”, but it is not. One hundred thousand is also “ten times ten thousand” (十万), one million is 百万, ten million is 千万, and a new word is introduced for one hundred million (亿).

Tip: In western cultures, digits in large numbers are sometimes divided into groups of three (1,329,476,508 for example). The three-digit numbers are pronounced separately, and “thousand” is added before the last group, “million” before the penultimate, “billion” before that etc. In Chinese, it works in a very similar way, but the digits are divided into groups of four (12,2947,6508)! “万” is added before the last group, and “亿” before the penultimate. In everyday life, we do not encounter numbers that are made up of more than three groups (12 digits).

For 20, 二十 is used, and not 两十. For 200, 两百 is preferred over 二百, but both are correct. For 2000 and up, 两 is used in the front instead of 二:

If the digit representing the tens is 0, it has to be pronounced:

307: 三百零七

3,070,000: 三百零七万 – in this example, the 0 after the 3 is representing the tens, because this number in Chinese is 307 x 10,000.

If the 0 is representing the hudreds or thousands, it can be pronounced, but it is not necessary. If there are two or more 0’s following each other, it is only pronunced once:

5200300: 五十二万零三百, or 五十二万三百

2020: 两千零二十, or 两千二十

4006: 四千零六 (there is no other possibility, because the 0 representing the tens must be pronunced)

50080: 五万零八十 or 五万八十

If the last digit of a number is 0, the number ends with “十”, but sometimes it can also be omitted:

250: 两百五十, or 两百五. – As noted above, 二百五十 is correct, but not frequently used, especially for this number, as 二百五 means idiot, stupid person.

“十” cannot be omitted from the end of a number where it would lead to misunderstanding, 50080 as an example, because then it could be mistaken for 50008 (五万零八), or 58000 (五万八).

还是:

“Or” in an interrogative sentence.

您换欧元还是美元?

你要坐车还是打车去?

“Still”, “yet”

我让他快点来，他还是很慢。

A：我八点去你家，可以吗？

B：八点太晚了。你早点来吧

A：那我七点半去，怎么样？

B：七点半还是有点晚

The use of “比” (bĭ):

“比” is used when comparing two things. Its meaning is identical to “than” in English, but the sentence structure is subject+比+object+predicate.

eg.

我比他高。

这条路比那条好走。

一千欧元比一万人民币多。

练习:
liànxí

Write and pronunce the following numbers in Chinese:

Pronunce the following numbers and write them with arabic digits:

Pronunce the following expressions: