Many
Chinese learners say that the numbers in Chinese are too troublesome! In fact, this is not the case. After finding the rules of these numbers, the problem will be solved naturally.
For example, "one" has two pronunciations: "yī" and "yāo". When used as a number, it is generally read as "yī", and when used as a phone number, it is generally read as "yāo". For example, the Chinese would read "110" as "yāoyāo ling".
As another example, the number "two" has two sayings: "Er" and "Liang". It is very similar to the case of "one". When it is pronounced "Er", it is generally used as a number, and "Liang" is generally used in quantity phrases. For example, instead of saying "Er ben shu", we say "Liang ben shu".
The case of pure numbers is also more troublesome. Many Chinese teachers may encounter such questions: "Is it" Er shi "or" Liang shi "? Is it" Er bai "or" Liang bai "? In general, we would say" Er shi " , "Er Bai" and "Liang Bai"both can be said. But when it comes to a thousand, we generally say "Liang qian" instead of "Er qian". Digits above a thousand are also generally read as "Liang".
Chinese favorite numbers and nasty numbers
The above are some special uses of numbers. In addition, Chinese people's preference for numbers is also different from other countries. Because the pronunciation of “8” in Cantonese is very similar to the word "fa" in Chinese, “Chinese” likes the number "8". In addition, they like the number "6", often saying "Liu liu da shun" that means everything goes smoothly. "9" is also a favorite number, because "9" is pronounced the same as "Jiu"and it means "a long time".
Because the pronunciation of the number "4" is close to "dead", it is not very popular with Chinese people. The same is true for "7". Since the pronunciation of "qi" is similar to "angry", few people generally like this number. In many western countries, "7" is a very lucky number.
Chinese people like doubles
In addition, Chinese people also like double numbers, and think double numbers are auspicious. When Chinese people choose a wedding date, they tend to choose double dates. Friends and family attending the wedding will also put double amounts of money in the red envelopes to celebrate their wedding. Our neighbor, Japan, is the opposite. When Japanese people get married, the people who attend the wedding will give the couple a single amount of money. Because the singular cannot be divided by 2, it means that the newly married two cannot be separated.
The above is the situation of being treated differently due to the pronunciation of numbers and the close proximity of Chinese characters, and the different usages of these numbers in specific occasions. I hope to help
Chinese learners!
