2 · Nouns, numbers and measure words
First, half, per cent and twice: dì, fēnzhī and bèi
ordinals, fractions, percentages and multiples
Dì before a number makes it an ordinal; a fraction names the whole first; bèi multiplies.
An ordinal is made by putting 第 before the number: 第一 first, 第二 second, 第三 third. Before a noun the measure word follows as usual: 第三个人, the third person, 第一次, the first time. In an ordinal, 一 keeps its first tone and two is always 二.
A fraction names the whole first and the part second, joined by 分之, “parts, of them”: 三分之一 is one third — “of three parts, one”. English says it the other way round, and that is the trap. A half is 一半 as a noun, and 半 before a measure word: 半个小时, half an hour. With a whole number, 半 moves behind the measure word: 一个半小时, an hour and a half.
A percentage is a fraction of a hundred: 百分之五十, fifty per cent. In writing it usually appears as 50%, but it is read this way. A decimal point is 点: 3.5 is 三点五.
Multiples are counted with 倍: 两倍, twice as much, 三倍, three times as much. When 倍 follows a comparison, it counts what is added, not the total: 多一倍, “one time more”, is double. This is where English speakers most often misread a figure.
The form
| the first time | 第一次 |
| the second day | 第二天 |
| one third | 三分之一 |
| fifty per cent | 百分之五十 |
| half an hour, an hour and a half | 半个小时、一个半小时 |
| twice as much | 两倍 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
第 + number makes an ordinal, and a measure word follows before the noun.
这是我第一次来中国。This is my first time in China.
A fraction names the whole first: whole, 分之, part.
我们班三分之一的学生会开车。A third of the students in our class can drive.
A percentage is a fraction of a hundred.
百分之八十的人同意。Eighty per cent of the people agreed.
半 goes before the measure word on its own, and after it when there is a whole number.
我等了一个半小时。I waited an hour and a half.
倍 counts multiples; 多一倍 means twice as much.
今年的学生比去年多一倍。There are twice as many students this year as last year.
A closer look
Bèi: by how much, or to how much?
Reports of growth use 倍 in two ways. 增加到两倍, “increased to two times”, means the result is double the start. 增加了一倍, “increased by one time”, means the same: one more of the original was added. So 增加了两倍 means three times the original, not two. Watch for 到, “to”, and 了, “by”, when you read a figure.
Shops count discounts the other way round from English. 打八折 means you pay eight tenths of the price — twenty per cent off — and 打五折 is half price. The number names what you pay, not what you save.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
-
numbering floors, school years, months, bus routes or rooms
no 第 is used: 三楼 is floor three, 二年级 year two, 五月 May. Floors are counted from the ground, so 一楼 is the ground floor and 三楼 what British English calls the second floor.
我女儿上二年级。My daughter is in year two.
Here the number is part of a name, like “Room 12” in English, rather than a position in a row.
How to spot it
- 第
- 分之
- 百分之
- 半
- 倍
Example sentences
她在比赛中得了第二名。She came second in the competition.
请看第十五页。Please look at page fifteen.
我只吃了一半。I only ate half.
我们公司四分之三的员工是女的。Three quarters of the staff at our company are women.
这套房子的价格是那套的两倍。This flat costs twice as much as that one.
会议开了半个小时。The meeting lasted half an hour.
8 more example sentences
我们坐第一排。We're sitting in the first row.
他是家里的第三个孩子。He is the third child in the family.
一年的四分之一是三个月。A quarter of a year is three months.
这家店的东西都打八折。Everything in this shop is twenty per cent off.
我的手机只剩百分之十的电了。My phone has only ten per cent battery left.
我每天走两公里半。I walk two and a half kilometres every day.
这儿的房租是我老家的三倍。The rent here is three times what it is in my home town.
他是第一个到的。He was the first to arrive.
Worth knowing (1)
-
Dì'èr tiān: the next day
第二天, “the second day”, is the everyday way to say “the next day” when you tell a story, counting from the day you are talking about. In the same way, 第二年 is “the following year”.
我们第二天就回家了。We went home the very next day.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English says the part first — “one third” — and the learner copies the order. Chinese builds the fraction from the whole: 三分之一, “of three parts, one”. Turned round, it would mean three parts out of one.
Dì for first and second; in a fraction, the whole comes before the part.
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.