Tutorial 11: The Thousands - Chinese Numbers Explained

千

Moving on up, we turn to the thousands:

千

qiān

. As with hundreds, it's very straightforward, just match a digit with 千 :

Thousands
1000	一千	yī qiān	one thousand
2000	两千	liǎng qiān	two thousand
3000	三千	sān qiān	three thousand
4000	四千	sì qiān	four thousand
5000	五千	wŭ qiān	five thousand
6000	六千	liù qiān	six thousand
7000	七千	qī qiān	seven thousand
8000	八千	bā qiān	eight thousand
9000	九千	jiŭ qiān	nine thousand

Notice here that we don't have two versions of 2000, in general there's just one way it's spoken, with 两.

To make more complex numbers just string the components together:

7362 = 七千三百六十二
seven	thousand	three	hundred	sixty		two
七	千	三	百	六	十	二
qī	qiān	sān	bǎi	liù	shí	èr

When you have a number with zeros in the middle, you need to say a zero (just as you do with hundreds, for example the 205 we saw previously), but you only say one zero. It doesn't matter how many zeros there are in between, you only say one:

8,008 = 八千〇八
eight	thousand	zero	eight
八	千	〇	八
bā	qiān	líng	bā

There are two ways you can handle the usage of 两 vs. 二 when there are more than one "2" in the numbers. Some speakers make use 两 in both the thousands and hundreds place. Others use 两 only the first time a 2 appears, and then switch to 二. These two examples demonstrate the difference:

2222 = 两千两百二十二
two	thousand	two	hundred	twenty		two
两	千	两	百	二	十	二
liǎng	qiān	liǎng	bǎi	èr	shí	èr

2222 = 两千二百二十二
two	thousand	two	hundred	twenty		two
两	千	二	百	二	十	二
liǎng	qiān	èr	bǎi	èr	shí	èr

Finally, a note about saying dates. Now that you can say four digit numbers you should be aware that you will sometimes see/hear the year read as a number, rather than just 4 digits. So you may see this alternative way to say years with lots of zeros in them:

2000 Variant
two	thousand	year
两	千	年
liǎng	qiān	nián

2001 Variant
two	thousand	zero	one	year
两	千	〇	一	年
liǎng	qiān	líng	yī	nián

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Chinese Numbers Explained

Thousands

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