五十二 (wǔ shí èr) — fifty-two

Definition

numeral
fifty-two
Easily confused

Examples

  • 五十二。
    Wǒ mǎi le wǔ shí èr běn shū.
    I bought fifty-two books.
  • 。
    Tā shì dì wǔ shí èr gè dào de.
    He arrived fifty-second.
  • 五十二。
    Zhè cì kǎo shì yǒu wǔ shí èr gè rén tōng guò.
    Fifty-two people passed this exam.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéSide by side

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

五十fifty
五wǔfive十shíten
偏正Modifier + head
二èrtwo

五十 combines five tens, and 二 adds two, giving fifty-two.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

An older form had a crossed mark between a top bar and a bottom bar. The modern 五 keeps those bars, while the original idea is uncertain.

Open 五 →

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 →

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 →

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