Counting money

Cash rules everything around us, and in China there's no exception. Mastering how to say quantities of money is vital!

Structure

Chinese has a specific structure for talking about quantities for money:

Number + 块 + Number + 毛

Examples

• 三 块 八 毛 sān kuài bā máothree kuai eight mao (3.8)
• 十 块 两 毛 shí kuài liǎng máoten kuai two mao (10.2)
• 九 块 五 毛 jiǔ kuài wǔ máonine kuai five mao (9.5)
• 一 块 七 毛 yī kuài qī máoone kuai seven mao (1.7)
• 五 十 块 五 毛 wǔshí kuài wǔ máofifty kuai five mao (50.5)

If the smaller units are only in tens, you can just say the number of tens. So 3.86 RMB is "三 块 八 (sān kuài bā)". Also this way of speaking is normally only used in matters with less than 100.

• 一 块 七yī kuài qīOne kuai seven mao (1.7)
• 三 块 八sān kuài bā Three kuai eight (3.8)
• 二 十 三 块 八èr shí sān kuài bāTwenty-three kuai eight mao (23.8)
• 六 十 块 五wǔ shí kuài wǔFifty kuai five mao (50.5)
• 八 十 二 块 四bāshí'èr kuài sìEighty-two kuai four mao (82.4)

The first number is the amount of whole RMB (or dollars etc.), and the second is the amount smaller units (e.g. cents). So 3.86 RMB is

• 三 块 八 毛 六sān kuài bā máo liùthree kuai eight mao six fen (3.86)

And if there's no smaller unit, e.g. 3 RMB, you can just say:

• 三 块sān kuài Three kuai

块 (kuài) is the more common, informal way to talk about money. More formally you can use 元 (yuán) in exactly the same way. This is similar to the difference between "dollars" and "bucks" in American English, or "pounds" and "quid" in British English. 块 (kuài) is appropriate in more situations than "bucks" or "quid", though.

See also

• Indicating a Number in Excess
• Approximating with sequential numbers

Sources and further reading

Books

• A Practical Chinese Grammar For Foreigners (外国人实用汉语语法) (pp. 88-9) →buy
• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 233-4) →buy