"How much does it cost?"
Duōshǎo qián? 多少钱
Survival phrases, if you're ready :) http://t.co/0ai6tXwsIx pic.twitter.com/YlWDyoz810
— Jodee Lim (@nihaohello) October 2, 2015
Yesterday, we learn how to go beyond the survival basics. One Twitter follower on NihaoHello was asking how to ask 'how much does it cost?'
So I decided to share a little more into fractions, decimals, percentages. Hence, it is now a little more on lower intermediate level of speaking. This shall also help you to do some basic grocery shopping while making a short trip to some Mandarin speaking parts of world.
Mandarin fractions can be expressed either as divisions of a whole (half, quarter, etc.) or as decimal fractions.
If you would like to express
‘fractions’ in mandarin, you can say:
Half
Half or one-half
yī
bàn (一半)
èr fēn zhī yī
– one part of two
2/3
(two thirds)
two parts of
three
sān fēn zhī
èr - two parts of three
Quarter
3/4
three-quarters
sì fēn zhī sān
四分之三
sì fēn zhī sān
四分之三
14/16
fourteen-sixteenths
shí liù fēn zhī shí sì
十六分之十四
fourteen-sixteenths
shí liù fēn zhī shí sì
十六分之十四
Decimal fractions
The decimal point in Mandarin decimal
fractions is stated as diǎn 点
Zero (0)
If the number begins with the decimal
point, it can optionally be prefaced with líng (zero) 零
0.1
líng diǎn yi
0.2
líng diǎn er
1.6
yī diǎn liù
一点六
0.5674
ling diǎn wǔ liù qī sì
零点五六七四
yī diǎn liù
一点六
0.5674
ling diǎn wǔ liù qī sì
零点五六七四
Percentages
30%
bǎi fēn zhī sān shí
百分之三十
bǎi fēn zhī sān shí
百分之三十
2%
bǎi fēn zhī èr
百分之二
bǎi fēn zhī èr
百分之二
