Chinese Numbers Explained

There are two words that can be used to refer to length of time. The formal one, meaning 'length of time', is

久

jiǔ

. You will often see the word

长

cháng

used when talking about duration, though this word means length more generally, not just about time.

Here is a table with the standard words for durations of time. Notice in the table that some words have the standard classifier

个

gè

with them and some don't. The reason they don't is because the word itself is the classifier. So for example for the word for "minute" the

分

fēn

in

分钟

fēn zhōng

is the classifier. Also notice that when talking about seconds, the 钟 is usually dropped, but with minutes it is not. Of the three ways to say week, both 星期 and 礼拜 require classifiers, but 周 does not, because it *is* the classifier.

Here are some examples of expressing durations: Days: Weeks: Months and years: And a couple alternative ways to talk about lengths of an hour:

Ranges

Another way to express a duration time is to speak in terms of a range, either an open-ended range, like “I’m busy until 4PM” or “I’m free after 6PM”, or a closed ended range, like “I work from 9 to 5”. Here are examples of how to express these:

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Chinese Numbers for iPhone & iPad lets you practice numbers and counting anytime, anywhere you are. Has two modes to input numbers and a challenging game to test your translation skills.