Y: Perfect Chinese your way, in only five minutes a day. Welcome to Chinese Studio. I’m Yajie.
C: It’s good to be back. I’m Cam. 你好 Yajie.
Y: 你好!Today we’ll learn more numbers. Before continuing with more numbers this time, let’s first review what we learned during the last two lessons, ‘cause what we are going to learn this time has an intimate relationship with them.
C: Well, during the last two lessons we learned how to say the numbers from 1 to 10 in Chinese.
Y: Cam, could you please have a try to speak them out?
C: Ok. No problem. From 1 to five they are 一二三四五 (yī èr sān sìwǔ.) Right?
Y: Exactly. Then what about those from six to ten ?
C: They are 六七八九十 (liù qī bā jiǔ shí).
Y: Great! Then we'll learn more numbers. First let’s check our key words of the day!
************Key words of the day
Today we’ll learn more numbers from 11 to 100. 11. 14. 16.
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C: Wow, that sounds challenging. Let’s get started!
Y: Ok. The numbers from 10 to 20 are very easy. 10 is shí. We learned it during the last time. The pronunciation of 10 is similar to “sh” of the English word “shield”. The second tone, 10 (shí). 11 is shi yi, 12 is shí èr, and so on.
C: shí yī, shí èr.
Y: Right! And 14 is?
C: shísì.
Y: And 16 is?
C: shí liù.
Y: you got it. In Chinese, double digit numbers are said the same way from 20 onwards. 20 is er shi. Literally, 2 and 10. Thirty is san shi. 33 is san shi san.
C: sān shí sān
Y: 32 is san shi er.
C: sān shí èr.
Y: And 85 is bā shíwǔ.
C: bā shíwǔ.
Y: Last time we learned how to say “10 books” in Chinese? Do you still remember that, Cam?
C: Yes, it’s 十本书 (shí běn shū). 本 is a measure word, and 书 means book. That’s easy! So I can say“我有23 本书”, I have 23 books.
Y: 我有23 本书. There is an important verb in the sentence. It’s 有. Here 有express possession. 我有, 我, I. 有, have.
Yeah, and also “我23岁”。 我 is I , and suì means year. So “我23岁” means “ I’m 23 years old”.
**********Key words reminder
19 is shíjiǔ, 47 is sìshíqī, 82 is bāshí’èr and 100 is yìbǎi. And also 我25岁,我 31岁。
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C: Then what about 100?
Y: It’s yìbǎi。
C: yìbǎi. My grandfather is yìbǎi suì.
Y: Really?
C: haha, I’m joking!
Y: Well, that’s it for today. Don’t forget you can win a gift by answering the question of the day in Chinese: From one to one hundred what’s your favorite number?