Millions and billions in Chinese

[Marco77]

Howdy all

I have a serious problem with Chinese numbers - my problem arises when I encouter numbers such as 982.5 million, or 10.9 billion - I get seriously confused with 万 and 亿. Does anybody know an easy way (a little formula maybe) to convert large number into Chinese?

thank you

Marco

[seesaw]

1 thousand = 1000 (3 0s)

1 million = 1000 000 (3*2=6 0s)

1 万 = 10000 (4 0s)

1 亿 = 10000 0000 (4*2=8 0s)

但是更大的数字却总是让人迷惑：

1 billion = 1000 000 000 (us?) or 1 billion = 1000 000 000 000(uk?)

1 兆 = 10000 0000 0000 or 1 兆 = 1 百万 = 100 0000 = 1 million, as a native Chinese speaker, I'm confused too.

[rmontelatici]

1 万 = 10000 (4 0s)

1 亿 = 10000 0000 (4*2=8 0s)

Precisely.

1 兆 = 10000 0000 0000 or 1 兆 = 1 百万 = 100 0000 = 1 million, as a native Chinese speaker, I'm confused too

In the UK: 1 billion = 1000 000 000 000.

In the US: 1 billion = 1000 000 000 and 1 trillion is 1000 000 000 000 (equals a UK billion).

Nowadays, 1 兆 = 1 百万 = 1 million.

But according to my dictionary, it formerly sometimes meant billion[uK] (= trillion[uS]).

[nnt]

There is an interesting link :

http://www.e-paranoids.com/c/ch/chinese_numerals.html

For numeral characters greater than wan4, actually there were three systems in ancient records:

...

Modern Chinese and Japanese use only the second system. The usage is consistent throughout all Chinese communities.

Intestingly, Vietnamese system use the first system : 兆 triệu : 1000 000 (million)

秭 tỉ 1000 000 000 (1000 million)

[xiaocai]

我感觉，如果在是有关计算机或者科技的文章里面，“兆”等于“百万”。但是在日常生活中说“兆”的话，大部分的人都会认为是指“1，0000，0000，0000”

[HashiriKata]

I haven't looked at the link but just to confirm that in Japanese, a "million" is referred to as 100万 and a "billion"(British) as 1兆 or 10億.

(The confusion seems to be mainly due to the difference between the British and American systems.)

For nnt or rmontelatici:

Could you please confirm whether the name of the Vietnamese poet Phạm Thiên Thư (Đưa Em Tìm Động Hoa Vàng, Em Lễ Chùa Này) is written in Chinese as 范天书 ? Tôi thích nhà thơ này nhưng không biết tên ông ấy bằng chử Hán.

Thanks,

[nnt]

Phạm Thiên Thư ... is written in Chinese as 范天书 ?

The family name Phạm is 范 .

The usual transcription of "Thiên Thư" are indeed 天书.

[HashiriKata]

Cảm ơn nhiều, nnt!

And sorry to the rest for distracting.

[rmontelatici]

Intestingly, Vietnamese system use the first system : 兆 triệu : 1000 000 (million)

秭 tỉ 1000 000 000 (1000 million)

What about vạn, the vietnamese loan for 万 ?

Is it still of frequent use ?

Could you please confirm whether the name of the Vietnamese poet Phạm Thiên Thư (Đưa Em Tìm Động Hoa Vàng, Em Lễ Chùa Này) is written in Chinese as 范天书 ? Tôi thích nhà thơ này nhưng không biết tên ông ấy bằng chử Hán.

Tôi không biết nhà thơ này

Ổng nổi tiếng không ?

[HashiriKata]

What about vạn, the vietnamese loan for 万 ?

Is it still of frequent use ?

You can find it in written materials but I think "mười ngàn" is more often used in spoken language.

Tôi không biết nhà thơ này

Ổng nổi tiếng không ?

I asked you and you asked me!

Yes, he's very well-known. He's a monk poet but known mostly for his love poems (the 2 songs I quoted are from his poems).

[Dav-X]

>> 982.5 million, or 10.9 billion

I was often confused with these huge number too.

Now, I automatically translate 900 million into 9 亿. (skip '00 behind 9)

And 10.9billion ---> 109 亿. (just make 10 times the number.)

[Guest IVYtony]

I'm also confused sometimes by the large numbers in Chinese. I have to count how many zeros are there. Sometimes, the large numbers are frustrating.

[smithsgj]

All you have to do is remember that 一百萬 is a million, 一億 is 100 million, and a billion is a thousand million (nobody uses those old UK billions any more).

Remember those 3 rules and you'll never hesitate again.

[Marco77]

Thank you for all your help!

Marco