This lesson will be about numbers, so that we can start using number in the next lessons. This is a long lesson, and you can always refer back to this in the future.
450 ສີ່ຮ້ອຍຫ້າສິບ 四百五十 (si4 bai3 wu3 shi2) [4 x 100 + 5 x 10]
1,000 – 9,999
1,000 ພັນຫນຶ່ງ 一千 (yi1 qian1)
2,000 ສອງພັນ 两千 (liang3 qian1) [2 x 1000]
3,000 ສາມພັນ 三千 (san1 qian1) [3 x 1000]
4,500 ສີ່ພັນຫ້າຮ້ອຍ 四千五百 (si4 qian1 wu3 bai3) [4 x 1000 + 5 x 100]
6,870 ຫົກພັນແປດຮ້ອຍເຈັດສິບ 六千八百七十 (liu4 qian1 ba1 bai3 qi1 shi2) [6 x 1000 + 8 x 100 + 7 x 10]
10,000 – 99,999
10,000 ສິບພັນ 一万 (yi1 wan4)
20,000 ຊາວພັນ 两万 (liang3 wan4) [2 x 10,000]
30,000 ສາມສິບພັນ 三万 (san1 wan4) [3 x 10,000]
45,000 ສີ່ສິບຫ້າພັນ 四万五千 (si4 wan4 wu3 qian1) [4 x 10,000 + 5 x 1000]
76,900 ເຈັດສິບຫົກພັນເກົ້າຮ້ອຍ 七万六千九百 (qi1 wan4 liu4 qian1 jiu3 bai3) [7 x 10,000 + 6 x 1000 + 9 x 100]
100,000 – 999,999
100,000 ແສນໜຶ່ງ 十万 (shi2 wan4) [10 x 10,000]
200,000 ສອງແສນ 二十万 (er2 shi2 wan4) [20 x 10,000]
450,000 ສີ່ຮ້ອຍຫ້າສິບພັນ 四十五万 (si4 shi2 wu3 wan4) [45 x 10,000]
580,000 ຫ້າຮ້ອຍແປດສິບພັນ 五十八万 (wu3 shi2 ba1 wan4) [58 x 10,000]
842,000 ແປດຮ້ອຍສີ່ສິບສອງພັນ 八十四万两千 (ba1 shi2 si4 wan4 liang3 qian1) [84 x 10,000 + 2 x 1000]
1,000,000 …
1,000,000 ຫນຶ່ງລ້ານ 一百万 (yi1 bai3 wan4) [100 x 10,000]
Because Chinese is a pictorial language, it’s easy to remember the Chinese words for one, two and three, by the number of horizontal lines:
1: 一
2: 二
3: 三
In general, counting in Chinese is quite logical. However, there are two things to note:
In Chinese, there is a word for 10,000, which is ‘万’ (wan4).
When the number ‘2’ is used to count a quantity of hundred, thousand, ten-thousand etc., we don’t say ‘二’ (er4), which means the number ‘2’. We use the counter word for ‘2’, which is ‘两’ (liang3).
Try to answer this question in Chinese: What is your salary?
Leave a Reply