Counting money

Revision as of 01:37, 17 March 2016 by Callan (talk | contribs)

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)

If the smaller units are only in tens, you can just say the number of tens. So 3.8 RMB is "三 八 (sān kuài bā)." Also this way of speaking is normally only used in matters with less than 100.

  • kuàiOne kuai seven mao (1.7)
  • sān kuàiThree kuai eight (3.8)
  • 二 十 三 èr shí sān kuàiTwenty-three kuai eight mao (23.8)
  • 六 十 liù shí kuàiSixty kuai five mao (60.5)
  • 八 十 二 bāshí'èr kuàiEighty-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

  • 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