拼音
- qiān (first tone, high and level)
thousand; a great many
字形拆解
- 人sound partThe graph began as 人 rén, a person, whose sound was borrowed for the number.
- 十shape partno entry yetThe horizontal tally stroke drawn across the figure. In the modern three strokes it has merged with the body and now reads as the 十 under which the character is filed.
Mnemonic
A person 人 with a single stroke drawn across the body: the person gave the sound, the stroke did the counting. In the modern three strokes the body has flattened into the falling stroke on top and the rest reads as 十, which is where dictionaries file it. Write it beside 干 and watch the first stroke — 千 begins with a falling stroke, 干 with a flat horizontal. In counting, 两千 is preferred to 二千, exactly as 两百 is to 二百.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.