三万五千 (sān wàn wǔ qiān) — thirty-five thousand

Definition

numeral
thirty-five thousand
Easily confused

Examples

  • 三万五千。
    Zhè ge chéng shì de rén kǒu dà yuē yǒu sān wàn wǔ qiān.
    The population of this city is about thirty-five thousand.
  • 三万五千。
    Tā měi yuè gōng zī shì sān wàn wǔ qiān kuài.
    His monthly salary is thirty-five thousand yuan.
  • 三万五千。
    Zhè cì huó dòng xū yào sān wàn wǔ qiān yuán yù suàn.
    This event requires a budget of thirty-five thousand yuan.

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.

三万three ten-thousands
三sānthree万wànten thousand
偏正Modifier + head
五千five thousands
五wǔfive千qiānthousand
偏正Modifier + head

三万 and 五千 stand side by side to total thirty-five thousand.

Characters in this word

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

三 is drawn as three parallel strokes, like 一 with one stroke and 二 with two.

Open 三 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 萬; 万 is its simplified writing.

For 万, the form 萬 was originally a picture of a scorpion, later borrowed for its sound to write 'ten thousand'; the scorpion picture is unrelated to that number.

Open 万 →

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 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
一一yīone, signifying a number
Sound part声符shēngfú
人
人rén千qiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

千 pairs 人, whose sound was similar, with 一, a number stroke; the extra line was explained as extension, and a thousand is a number reached by extending counting.

Open 千 →

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