二千万 (èr qiān mò) — 20 million

Definition

numeral
20 million
Easily confused

Examples

  • 二千万。
    Tā zhuàn le èr qiān mò měi yuán.
    He earned 20 million dollars.
  • 二千万。
    Zhè ge chéng shì de cháng zhù rén kǒu chāo guò èr qiān mò.
    The permanent population of this city exceeds 20 million.
  • 二千万。
    Zhè bù diàn yǐng de piào fáng dá dào le èr qiān mò.
    The box office of this movie reached 20 million.

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.

二千two thousand
二èrtwo千qiānthousand
偏正Modifier + head
万wànten thousand

二千 means two thousand and 万 means ten thousand; together they give twenty million.

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 →

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 →

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