四十亿 (sì shí yì) — (measure word) four billion (used for large quantities)

Definition

The Chinese way to say 'four billion' (4,000,000,000): four 10 × 亿. One 亿 = 100 million, so 四十亿 = 40 × 100 million. Note: in mainland Chinese usage this equals 4 billion (短亿), not 4 hundred million.

classifier
four billion (used for large quantities)

Examples

  • 四十亿。
    Zhè ge xiàng mù xū yào sì shí yì měi yuán tóu zī.
    This project requires four billion dollars in investment.
  • 四十亿。
    Qù nián quán qiú liáng shi chǎn liàng chāo guò sì shí yì dūn.
    Last year global grain output exceeded four billion tons.
  • 四十亿。
    Gāi gōng sī shì zhí dá dào sì shí yì rén mín bì.
    The company's market value reached four billion RMB.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

The form 四 was drawn as a nose breathing out. It later came to be used for the word four.

Open 四 →

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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