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二千 (èr qiān) — two thousand

Definition

numeral
two thousand

Examples

  • 二千。
    Zhè ge chéng shì de rén kǒu dà yuē yǒu èr qiān.
    The population of this city is about two thousand.
  • 二千。
    Tā měi gè yuè néng zhuàn èr qiān kuài qián.
    He can earn two thousand yuan each month.
  • 二千。
    Wǒ men xué xiào yǒu èr qiān duō míng xué shēng.
    Our school has over two thousand students.

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èrtwo
千qiānthousand

二 'two' before 千 'thousand' gives two thousand.

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 →

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 →
Appears in
Numbers & Counting

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