Difference between revisions of "Counting money"
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块 is the more common, informal way to talk about money. More formally you can use 元 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 is appropriate in more situations than "bucks" or "quid", though. | 块 is the more common, informal way to talk about money. More formally you can use 元 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 is appropriate in more situations than "bucks" or "quid", though. | ||
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| + | == Sources and further reading == | ||
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| + | === Books === | ||
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| + | * [http://www.amazon.cn/mn/detailApp?_encoding=UTF8&tag=allset-23&linkCode=as2&asin=B001J0ADWA&camp=536&creative=3132&creativeASIN=B001J0ADWA 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (pp. 88 - 89)] | ||
[[Category:A2 grammar points]] | [[Category:A2 grammar points]] | ||
Revision as of 02:54, 22 August 2011
Chinese has a specific structure for talking about quantities for money:
Number + 块 + Number + 毛
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
- 三块八十六毛
If the smaller units are only in tens, you can just say the number of tens. So 3.8 RMB is:
- 三块八
And if there's no smaller unit, e.g. 3 RMB, you can just say:
- 三块
块 is the more common, informal way to talk about money. More formally you can use 元 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 is appropriate in more situations than "bucks" or "quid", though.
