三十亿 (sān shí yì) — three billion

Definition

numeral
three billion
Easily confused

Examples

  • 三十亿。
    Zhè jiā gōng sī de nián shōu rù chāo guò sān shí yì měi yuán.
    This company's annual revenue exceeds three billion US dollars.
  • 三十亿。
    Quán qiú měi nián chǎn shēng sān shí yì dūn lā jī.
    The world produces three billion tons of garbage every year.
  • 三十亿。
    Zhè ge xiàng mù zǒng tóu zī é dá dào sān shí yì rén mín bì.
    The total investment for this project reached three billion RMB.

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.

三十thirty
三sānthree十shíten
偏正Modifier + head
亿yìhundred million

三 'three' and 十 'ten' make thirty, and 亿 'hundred million' supplies the large unit.

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 →

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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