Counting money

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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

  • sān kuàimáothree kuai eight mao (3.8)
  • shí kuài liǎng máoten kuai two mao (10.2)
  • jiǔ kuàimáonine kuai five mao (9.5)
  • kuàimáoone kuai seven mao (1.7)
  • 五 十 wǔshí kuàimáofifty kuai five mao (50.5)
  • 七 十 二 qīshí'èr kuàimáoseventy-two kuai four mao (72.4)
  • 一 百 yībǎi kuàimáoone hundred kuai five mao (100.5)
  • 五 百 wǔbǎi kuài sān máofive hundred kuai three mao (500.3)
  • 两 千 两 百 liǎng qiān liǎng bǎi kuài liǎng máo two thousand two hundred kuai two mao (2200.2)
  • 三 千 一 百 sānqiān yībǎi kuàimáothree thousand one hundred kuai one mao (3100.1)

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

  • 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