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Sunday, December 17, 2017

Chinese Numbers One To Ten: how to remember the signs

Problem
For years I have been trying to learn the Chinese numbers one to ten. Yesterday I had a lighbulb moment.

Answers
Numbers one to three are easy. They are similar to Roman numerals bt sideways.

What Number Signs Look Like
One - horizontal line
Two - two horizontal lines
Three -  three horizontal lines.

Ten - a cross similar to the Christian Cross, like a Roman ten which is an X but turned upright with a horizontal and a vertical line.

Four is like a square made of four almost equal lines, but turned into a window with curtains.

Five looks rather like the number five, written with lines instead of curves. The horizontals are extended.

Six: like six lions, two lines like small horns or ears, a horizontal, two legs.

Seven is like a Europen seven with a horizontal bar. (They add a horizontal bar to prevent you from confusing a seven with a number one). Turn the seven upside down.

Eight is like the letter eight turned sideways but the outside edges of the two circles out of focus.  Like the curtains of the four.

Nine like a ten but with a turned up end to the horizontal. Like a tent but not finished.

After you have got some pictures to help, just keep reading the numbers regularly, at least three times a day, or an hour, for three days running - or ten days.

If you go to Wikipedia and look up the numbers one to ten, suddenly both the Roman numerals in line three and the Chinese characters in the last line start to look comparatively easy.

In Wikipedia under numbers see the last line of a chart. I looked in Simple Wikipedia but the word numbers brought up other complicated concepts about numbers.

Chart put up by author/user

Psiĥedelisto

I finally started numbers using duolingo's tiny cards.
See next post.

Author
Anela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.


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