Mandarin Chinese 101: Numbers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Both are correct

'Yi' is the most commonly used word for 'one'. 'Yao' is used in telephone numbers as well as on CB radios to make sure you don't confuse it with 'seven' which is 'qi'. Contrary to stories, 'yao' was NOT started as a tribute to Yao Ming.

Answer: san

Er' means 'Two'. 'Wu' is five. 'Qi' is 'seven'.

Answer: one hundred yuan

Though China's currency's formal name is 'ren min bi', most people will just use the word 'yuan'. Yuan is spelled the same in both English and in the romanization of Chinese. 'One thousand' is 'yi qian'. 'Ten' is 'shi'. And, 'one' is 'yi'.

Answer: True

The three ways of saying "two" in Chinese are "er", "liang", and "lia". "Er" and "liang" are two easily confused characters. When counting, you say "er" when "two" is alone or after another number, like in these cases: "one, two, three..." (yi, er, san in Chinese) or "thirty-two" (san shi er). "Liang" is used for "two" when "two" appears before another number, such as: "two hundred" (liang bai) or "two thousand" (liang qian). "Liang" is also only used for counting, for instance "two chickens" (liang ge ji), whereas "er" can also mean "second", as in "the second floor" (di er ceng). "Lia" is a contraction of "liang" and "ge", and is generally used in speech when talking about "those two (people)" or "two people" (lia ren). "Lia" is used specially when informally talking about two people; you never say "two pairs of chickens" as "lia zhi ji". Such a case would use "liang", as mentioned above.

In addition, each character is written differently.

Answer: shi jiu

If you can count to ten in Chinese, you have all you need to know to count to ninety-nine. Eleven to nineteen is simply 'ten one' ('shi yi') for eleven, 'ten two' ('shi er') for twelve, 'ten three' ('shi san') for thirteen, etc. If you said it the other way around, 'two ten' would be 'Twenty' which is 'er shi', 'three ten' or 'thirty' is 'san shi', 'four ten' or 'forty' is 'si shi', etc. For all the other numbers, you just place it all together as you normally would in English. Example: 'ninety-eight' ('nine ten eight') is 'jiu shi ba'. For the incorrect answers, 'shi ba' is 'eighteen', 'shi liu' is sixteen, and 'shi si' is fourteen.

Answer: False

There is no single character for 'hundred thousand'. However there is a character for 'ten thousand' which is 'wan'.

Answer: dian

Gou' means 'check' as in check mark. 'Jiao' means 'angle'. And, 'du' means 'degree'.

Answer: True

It is easy to change some numbers to another with informal characters. When writing checks, contracts or other documents where fraud is possible, there is a set of formal characters that are used so that someone can not just add a stroke or two to change the numbers.

Answer: True

A percent is simply a fraction with a denominator of 100. In Chinese, you always say the denominator first. So, 'three-fourth' would be said 'si fen zhi san'. 'Fen zhi' means 'parts of'. For percent, it would be the same thing but, there is no need to use the one before the hundred. 'Seventy-nine percent' would be 'bai fen zhi qi shi jiu'.

Answer: jia

Yi' means 'one'. 'Deng yu' means 'equals'. 'Er' means 'two'. Knowing this, the statement is translated to 'One ____ one equals two.' so, 'add' should go into the blank. 'Jia' is 'add'. 'Jian' is 'subtract'. 'Cheng' is multiply. 'Chu' means 'divide'.