二十亿 (èr shí yì) — two billion

Definition

numeral
two billion
Easily confused

Examples

  • 二十亿。
    Nà ge guó jiā yǒu èr shí yì rén kǒu.
    That country has a population of two billion.
  • 二十亿。
    Gōng sī qù nián zhuàn le èr shí yì yuán.
    The company earned two billion yuan last year.
  • 二十亿。
    Zhè cì jiāo yì shè jí èr shí yì měi yuán.
    This transaction involves two billion US dollars.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

二十twenty
二èrtwo十shíten
偏正Modifier + head
亿yìhundred million

二十 gives twenty, and 亿 is the unit of hundred million, so it means two billion.

Characters in this word

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

二 is drawn as two parallel strokes, where the number of strokes shows the amount.

Open 二 →

An abstract idea shown by a mark or a diagram rather than by a picture of an object.

The early shape 十 was mostly a single vertical stroke, sometimes with a dot, and later gained a horizontal stroke to form a cross. For the number ten, it marked the next digit above one.

Open 十 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 億; 亿 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rén
Sound part声符shēngfú
意
意yì億yì
Same sound today

The traditional form 億 pairs 人 (person) with 意 for its sound; the simplified 亿 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the original pieces.

Open 亿 →

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