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词汇

Numbers and Money: Counting, Asking a Price, Paying

Ten number words get you to ninety-nine with no further vocabulary. Then 多少钱, 买 and 块 — the word for money that people actually say, as opposed to the one printed on the price tag — plus the one distinction beginners get wrong every time: 二 against 两.

HSK 1· HSK 1–4（旧版）12 分钟

What you will be able to do

  • Say any number from one to ninety-nine, and read a number off a price tag.
  • Choose 二 or 两 by what comes next: a measure word takes 两, a compound number takes 二.
  • Ask a price with 多少钱 and understand an answer given as a bare number in 块.

Numbers and money

One to ten

yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí.

Learn them as sounds first and as characters second. The first three are simply one, two and three horizontal strokes, and is a cross — nearly half the set writes itself.

Eleven to ninety-nine, with no new words

The rest is arithmetic. A digit after adds: shíyī (11), shíwǔ (15), shíjiǔ (19). A digit before multiplies: èrshí (20), wǔshí (50), jiǔshí (90). Put both together and everything up to ninety-nine falls out: èrshíyī (21), sānshíwǔ (35), jiǔshíjiǔ (99).

Two notes. Pinyin inserts an apostrophe when a syllable beginning with a, e or o would otherwise be read as part of the syllable before it: shí'èr, èrshí'èr. And líng is zero, which you need for the gap inside a number: yìbǎi líng wǔ (105). bǎi, hundred, is the one word beyond ten that a price tag will make you learn.

or

Both mean two, and the division of labour is mechanical.

  • èr counts, reads digits out one by one, and lives inside compound numbers: 、、; shí'èr; èrshí'èr.
  • liǎng stands directly before a measure word: liǎng ge (two of them), liǎng kuài (two yuan), liǎng ge rén (two people).
  • The contrast is clearest in dates and times: èryuè is February, but liǎng diǎn is two o'clock — because is a measure word and the of a month name is not.
  • From a hundred upwards, speech prefers : liǎngbǎi, liǎngqiān.

One more habit worth taking now. When digits are read out singly — a room number, a phone number, a flight — is said yāo, not yī, so that it cannot be confused with qī over a bad line. Room 108 comes out yāo líng bā.

Asking a price

duōshao is how much, how many. Its second syllable is neutral, and it goes straight in front of what is being counted.

  • ？ Duōshao qián? — How much?
  • ？ Zhège duōshao qián? — How much is this one?
  • ？ Yígòng duōshao qián? — How much altogether? ( is fourth tone, so becomes yí.)

For a number you expect to be small — how many people, how many brothers — jǐ is the usual choice instead; leaves the answer wide open, which is what a price needs.

, and how a price is actually said

The currency is written yuán on tags, receipts and screens, and almost nobody says across a counter. In speech the unit is kuài. Its tenth is máo in speech and jiǎo in writing, and fēn, the hundredth, survives on paper and essentially nowhere else.

  • shí kuài — ten yuan. shí kuài qián is equally normal.
  • yí kuài — one yuan. is fourth tone, so becomes yí.
  • sān kuài wǔ — three fifty. The final unit is dropped, exactly as English drops it.
  • sānshíwǔ — a shopkeeper answering will very often give the bare number and leave to be understood.

mǎi is to buy: 。 Wǒ mǎi liǎng ge. 。 Wǒ mǎi shuǐ. Guard the tone with some care. mǎi is buy and mài is sell — one dips and the other drops, and the character for sell is the character for buy with set on top of it. Reversing the two at a market stall is the classic first-week moment.

How to work through it

  1. Build ninety-nine numbers out of ten wordsread

    Count aloud from one to ten, then from ten to twenty, then in tens to ninety. Finish by saying these without working them out: 35, 48, 62, 99, 105.

  2. The ten digitsvocabulary

    Ten cards, learned as a chain rather than as separate items — the order is what you will need. Watch 四 sì and 十 shí, which sound alike to a beginner but differ in both consonant and tone.

  3. The four words a shop needsvocabulary

    多少 and 钱 arrive as one unit, 多少钱. Keep 买 mǎi apart from 卖 mài by the tone alone, and remember that 块 is what is said while 元 is what is printed.

  4. Two or twosentence

    Say each and justify the choice out loud: 两个人 / 十二个人; 两块 / 二十二块; 两点 / 二月; 我买两个。 The test is always the same — is a measure word coming next?

  5. Measure words and how muchquiz

    Eight items on 个 after a number, and on choosing between 多少 and 几 for the thing being counted.

  6. Buy two of somethingspeaking

    Run the exchange twice, once in each role: 你好。 / 你好。 / 这个多少钱？ / 十块。 / 我买两个，一共多少钱？ / 二十。 / 谢谢。 / 不客气。 The seller should answer with bare numbers, because that is what happens.

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