12 Responses to “CLO_008: Numbers II”

1. Johan Says:
   January 16th, 2008 at 1:57 am

   Hi - how do you say 2000 - liang qian? Great course btw, I have tried to learn chinese before but this makes learning great fun!

2. Johan Says:
   January 16th, 2008 at 2:01 am

   Once again - is it correct to say that er is used in numbers only in the ultimate or penultimate position, i e for 342 or 526? In other words - do you say liang or er in a number such as 4215? Thanks!

3. Adam Says:
   January 16th, 2008 at 4:27 am

   Hi Johan.

   Liang is used in front of hundred (for 200), thousand (for 2000), ten thousand (for 20 000) and so on. For all other instances, er is used. So yes, 2000 would be liang qian.

   Hope that helps!

4. Johan Says:
   January 17th, 2008 at 2:20 am

   Great, thanks for the information!

5. Claudia Says:
   February 27th, 2009 at 6:21 pm

   hi… is me again

   i was wondering … while sourching in another site to learn chinese

   and there was - èrbǎi 二百 for 200 - yet you say that is wrong

   so i don’t understansd

6. Adam Says:
   March 1st, 2009 at 9:49 pm

   Hi again Claudia,

   In northern parts of China they sometimes say èrbǎi, whereas in southern parts liǎngbǎi is used, so I stand corrected. Thanks for pointing this out!

7. Elane Says:
   March 12th, 2010 at 8:27 am

   Hello!
   I just have a little question…Shouldn’t ‘9012′ be ‘jiǔ qiān líng shí èr’ instead of ‘jiǔ qiān líng yī shí èr’? I don’t understand why the ‘yī’ would be there.
   Thanks!
   P.S.: This is the best course ever!

8. Adam Says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 5:17 pm

   Hi Elane,

   Good question. The reason becomes more clear when you compare it with other numbers:

   9012: jiǔ qiān líng yī shí èr
   9022: jiǔ qiān líng èr shí èr
   9032: jiǔ qiān líng sān shí èr

   As you can see, there is a standard 123 (yī, èr, sān) progression there.

   Hope that helps!

9. Veronica Weisser Says:
   February 1st, 2011 at 7:02 am

   Hello!

   I was wondering why
   2001 = Yī qiān líng yī
   in the text.
   But
   2005 = Liǎng qiān líng líng wǔ
   on the Notes page. I.e. why only one ling in the first example and two times ling in the second example?

   Thanks for the great course!

   Veronica

10. Adam Says:
    February 8th, 2011 at 2:22 am

    Hi Veronica,

    You’re right - I have updated the answer to Liǎng qiān líng wǔ, which is the correct answer. Thanks for pointing this out!

11. Justin Says:
    December 22nd, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    Hi Adam,
    I just had a couple of Mandarin number questions.

    (1) I live in the US and so a lot of the Mandarin I hear in real life and on TV/radio here is indeed spoken by Taiwanese folks and sometimes by Hong Kongers that have learned to speak Mandarin. I was told that when reading a long string of numbers especially over the phone the number 1 is often read yāo and I guess the reason behind this is not to confuse 1 (yī) with 7 (qī). I hear that a lot when I’m listening to radio shows streaming live from Mainland China. But here in the US, I hardly ever hear yāo — I only hear yī. So is yāo not used all that often in Taiwan?

    (2) Numbers from 101 to 109: is it *incorrect* to say them without líng in between them?

12. Adam Says:
    December 27th, 2011 at 9:23 pm

    Hi Justin,

    1. People in Taiwan are familiar with yāo since it’s used in the military, but you are correct that it isn’t used normally otherwise.

    2. Yes it is incorrect to say numbers without the líng because that is a short form used for the “tens” place. Here are some examples:

    Yi bai ling wu: 105
    Yi bai wu: 150
    Yi bai wu shi: 150

    Ba bai ling ba: 808
    Ba bai ba: 880
    Ba bai ba shi: 880

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website