Counting money

Revision as of 08:44, 30 October 2014 by Nataliek (talk | contribs) (→‎Examples)

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

  • 3.8 sān kuàimáo
  • 10.2shí kuài liǎng máo
  • 9.5jiǔ kuàimáo
  • 1.7kuàimáo
  • 五 十 50.5wǔshí kuàimáo
  • 七 十 二 72.4qīshí'èr kuàimáo
  • 一 百 100.5yībǎi kuàimáo
  • 五 百 500.3wǔbǎi kuài sān máo
  • 两 千 两 百 2200.2liǎng qiān liǎng bǎi kuài liǎng máo
  • 三 千 一 百 3100.1sānqiān yībǎi kuàimáo

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

  • sān kuàiThree kuai eight (3.8)
  • shí kuài èrTen kuai two (10.2)
  • jiǔ kuàiNine kuai five (9.5)
  • kuàiOne kuai seven (1.7)
  • 五 十 wǔ shí kuàiFifty kuai five (50.5)
  • 七 十 二 qīshí'èr kuàiSeventy-two kuai four (72.4)
  • 二 十 三 èr shí sān kuàiTwenty-three kuai eight (23.8)
  • 两 百 一 十 二 liǎng bǎi yīshí'èr kuài sānTwo hundred and twelve kuai three (212.3)
  • 一 百 七 十 二 yī bǎi qī shí èr kuàiOne hundred and seventy-two kuai four (172.4)
  • 一 千 三 百 五 十 八 yī qiān sānbǎi wǔshíbā kuàiOne thousand three hundred and fifty-eight kuai five (1358.5)


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 六3.86sān kuài bā máo liù



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

  • 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

Sources and further reading

Books