Lesson 7: Money in Chinese
Knowing how to count money and communicate accurately is essential for your survival in foreign countries. This lesson will teach you this essential skill in Chinese. Chinese currency has units as dollar (元 yuan), 10 cents (角 jiao) and cent (分 fen). However, the cent unit is not often used anymore due to currency depreciation.
Vocabulary:
| Chinese Character | Pinyin | Pronunciation | Word Class | English Translation | |
| 元 | yuán | (n.) | yuan (as dollar in US $) | ||
| 角 | jiǎo | (n.) | x10 fen (as 10 cents in US $) | ||
| 分 | fēn | (n.) | fen (as cent in US $) | ||
| 钱 | qián | (n.) | money | ||
| 这 | zhè | (a.) | this | ||
| 那 | nà | (a.) | that | ||
| 一共 | yī gòng | (a.) | in total | ||
| 有 | yǒu | (v.) | have | ||
| 是 | shì | (prep.) | am; are; is | ||
| 多少 | duō shǎo | how much | |||
| 多 | duō | (adj.) | much, many | ||
| 少 | shǎo | (adj.) | little, few | ||
Tips:
- Chinese people like to put two antonyms together to illustrate the quantity of either word. (e.g. 多(much)少(few) = how much, 大(big)小（small) = size or how big or how small)
- Currencies that are one yuan and less are in coins; one yuan and up are presented in paper money. (one yuan can be found in both paper and coin format)
- The currency units are: 1 fen, 2 fen, 5 fen, 1 jiao, 2 jiao, 5 jiao, 1 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan, 50 yuan and 100 yuan. (click here to see the images of the currency)
Dialog:
Click to hear the above dialog.
English Translation:
How much (money) is this?
This is one dollar.
How much (money) is that?
That is sixty eight cents.
How much money is it in total?
The total is one dollar and sixty eight cents.
Chinese Calligraphy:
Questions and Comments
