正文

Counting in Chinese

(2006-11-30 20:17:06) 下一个

Again, as a Chinese, I was asked to introduce our Chinese number system in class. Everyone agreeed that counting in Chinese is easier than in English, both in reading and writing.

Notice that from 1 to 10, there are ten different numbers. But from 11 on, each number is actually a ten ( 十 ) plus a corresponding digit in the one’s place. For example, 11 is ten-one ( 十一 ). In English, eleven does not seem to have any relation either with ten or one.

However, when it comes to 20, in English, there is also a pattern. For example, 21 is twenty-one, which is twenty plus the corresponding digit in the one’s place. But in Chinese, not only 21 is related to 20, 20 is also related to ten. In fact, 20 is written as two tens ( 二十 ) in Chinese.

Moreover, reading numbers in Chinese is much easier than in English.

 

Arab

Chinese

 

English

Chinese characters

Phonetic form

Meaning

1

yi

One

One

2

er

Two

Two

3

san

Three

Three

4

si

Four

Four

5

wu

Five

Five

6

liu

Six

Six

7

qi

Seven

Seven

8

ba

Eight

Eight

9

jiu

Nine

Nine

10

shi

Ten

Ten

11

十一

shi yi

Ten-one

Eleven

12

十二

shi er

Ten-two

Twelve

13

十三

shi san

Ten-three

Thirteen

14

十四

shi si

Ten-four

Fourteen

15

十五

shi wu

Ten-five

Fifteen

16

十六

shi liu

Ten-six

Sixteen

17

十七

shi qi

Ten-seven

Seventeen

18

十八

shi ba

Ten-eight

Eighteen

19

十九

shi jiu

Ten-nine

Nineteen

20

二十

er shi

Two tens

Twenty

21

二十一

er shi yi

Two-ten one

function forumSelected() { var forumId = $("#forumId").val(); if(forumId == null || '' == forumId) { alert('请选择论坛.'); } else { } }
[ 打印 ]
阅读 ()评论 (0)
评论
目前还没有任何评论
登录后才可评论.