Ch 28 · Lesson 24Mandarin · Chapter 28 · Lesson 24 · Themed review
Numbers and luck
(sì) sounds like (sǐ), to die, and (bā) like (fā), to prosper. With so few syllables to go round, numbers carry meanings of their own.
Practise this lesson
21-word session
A quick mix of exercises - recognise, recall, type and build each word. Miss one and it comes back round until it sticks.
Worth knowing
Four is unlucky, eight makes you rich
Mandarin has only around four hundred syllables before you count the tones, so a great many words share a sound. The upside-down 福 (fú) of the Spring Festival session was one pun built on that. Numbers are a whole family of them, and they shape everyday choices.
The lucky and the unlucky
| Number | Sounds like | So |
|---|---|---|
| (sì), four | (sǐ), to die | unlucky; some buildings have no fourth floor, and a gift in fours is avoided |
| (bā), eight | (fā), as in 财 (fācái), to get rich | the luckiest of all |
| (liù), six | as in 顺 (liùliù dàshùn), everything going smoothly | good for business |
| (jiǔ), nine | (jiǔ), lasting a long time | popular at weddings |
The tones do not always match. 四 (sì) and 死 (sǐ) differ in tone in Mandarin, and the fear of four is strongest among Cantonese speakers, where the two are almost identical. The association is still well known everywhere.
Eight
When Beijing opened the Olympic Games in 2008, it did not leave the date to chance. The ceremony began on 8 August 2008, at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 in the evening.
520
Read the digits 5, 2, 0 aloud in Mandarin: 五二零 (wǔ èr líng). Now say 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ), I love you. Close enough, and 20 May, written 5.20, has become an unofficial Valentine's Day. Couples choose it to propose, and register offices in big cities are booked up well in advance.
Never give a clock
送钟 (sòng zhōng), to give a clock, sounds exactly like 送终 (sòngzhōng), to be with a dying parent at the end. A clock is one of the presents to avoid, especially for an older person. 送 (sòng), to give or to see someone off, is a word you already have, which is how the pun lands.
Your numbers
You have known these since chapter 2: 一 (yī), 二 (èr), 三 (sān), 四 (sì), 五 (wǔ), 六 (liù), 七 (qī), 八 (bā), 九 (jiǔ), 十 (shí). What is new is what they carry. When someone hands you a 号码 (hàomǎ), a phone number, full of eights, or picks a 日子 (rìzi), a date, for a wedding, the 数字 (shùzì), the numbers, are rarely an accident.