Difference between revisions of "Counting money"

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{{Grammar Box}}
 
== Structure ==
 
== Structure ==
  
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[[Category:A2 grammar points]]
 
[[Category:A2 grammar points]]
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{{Basic Grammar|块|A2|Number + 块/元 (+ Number + 毛/角) (+ 钱)|给 你 五 <em>块</em> 三 <em>毛</em>。|grammar point|ASGL6JOE}}
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{{Rel char|元}}
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{{Rel char|毛}}
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{{Rel char|角}}
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{{Similar|Indicating a Number in Excess}}   
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{{Similar|Approximating with sequential numbers}}

Revision as of 04:48, 13 June 2012

Structure

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

  • 八 毛 六

If the smaller units are only in tens, you can just say the number of tens. So 3.8 RMB is:

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

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.

See also

Sources and further reading

Books