Lesson 009 Numbers from 0 to 5 in Chinese

Yajie: Perfect Chinese your way, in only five minutes a day. Welcome to this edition of Chinese Studio. I’m Yajie. 
Cam: Good morning, I’m Cam. 
Y: This week we’ll mainly focus on numbers, which you can use almost everyday in China. 
C: Right, numbers are very important in our lives. We are going to start from the very beginning. Let’s check Key Words of the Day!

************** Key words of the day
Today we’ll learn how to say the numbers from 0 to 5 in Chinese. They are 0 1 2 3 4 5. 0 1 2 3 4 5. All in today’s Chinese Studio!
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Y: I have a question for you Cam. How many family members do you have? 
C: There are 5.
Y: So, that’s 5口人 in Chinese. Wǔ is 5, the third tone. Wǔ.    kǒu is a measure word for people. You know in Chinese there are lots of measure words for different nouns. And rén means people. So your family has 5口人, five people .
C: Yeah, then how many family members do you have, Yajie?
Y: My family has 4口人。Sì is 4, forth tone. 4 口人,  4 people.

C: Yajie, could you please tell me how long have you been here, in Beijng? 
Y: 3 years. 3 年。 Sān is 3, and nión means year. 3年，three years.  What about you? How many years have you been in Beijing?
C: One year.
Y: OK, in Chinese one year is 1 年。Yī means one, the first tone. But if it’s followed by a second tone syllable it should be changed to the forth tone. 1年(yì nián), one year. So it’s yi nian, instead of yi nian; remember we learned 一会儿 last week? it’s the same.  Cam, Give it a try, 1年(yì nián)
C: 1年(yì nián)

C: Ok, we already have learned 1 3 4 5. Then how about the two remaining numbers, 0 and 2?
Y: 0 is líng, second tone. Ling; 
C: líng.
Y: 2 is èr, forth tone. èr.
C: Er. Now we’ve learned all of the numbers from 0 to 5. Let’s put them together.
Y: They are: 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5. (in Chinese)
C:  0 1 2 3 4 5 (ling, yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ). That sounds like a song. I’ll be able to start using these right away.

**********Key words reminder:
Today we’ve learned how to say the six basic numbers from 0 to 5 in Chinese. They are 0, zero; 1, one, 2, two, 3, three, 4, four, 5, five ; And also 5口人, five persons,； 4口人, four persons,； 3年, three years ； 1年, one year.