(bǎi) - hundred in Mandarin
bǎiTraditional: 百
Translation
hundred
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Word origin
The oracle-bone form is 白 (bái, white) with a horizontal stroke on top. The stroke is 一 (yī, one) and 白 supplies the sound, so the character reads as one hundred.
- Origin
- phono-semantic
- Root
- 一 (one) + 白 (bái, phonetic)
Stroke order
百
Examples
。
This book costs a hundred yuan.
。
Our school has two hundred pupils.
。
Eighty per cent of people agree.
。
He ran a hundred metres.
。
My house is three hundred metres from the school.
百 (bǎi) is a hundred, and unlike 十 (shí) it always needs a number in front of it. A hundred is 一百 (yìbǎi), not bare 百 (set phrases such as 百分之 aside), and the 一 shifts to a fourth tone because 百 is third. Two hundred can be 两百 (liǎngbǎi) or 二百 (èrbǎi); both are correct, 两百 is what you will hear most in speech, and 二百 turns up more when figures are read out formally. From three upwards there is no choice: 三百 (sānbǎi), 五百 (wǔbǎi), 九百 (jiǔbǎi).
Gaps inside a number are filled with 零 (líng, zero). 105 is 一百零五 (yìbǎi líng wǔ), because without the 零 you would be saying something else entirely: 一百五 (yìbǎi wǔ) is the everyday short form of 150, with the tens understood. Get this wrong in a shop and you pay forty-five yuan more than you meant to. 110 is 一百一十 (yìbǎi yìshí), with the 一 before 十 restored.
The other place you will meet 百 constantly is per cent. Chinese puts the hundred first: 百分之五十 (bǎi fēn zhī wǔshí) is fifty per cent, literally fifty of a hundred parts. It is on every sale sign and in every news report, so learn it as a single chunk.
Where this fits
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Mandarin · Free printables
百: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "百" (hundred): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
This word is taught in chapter 2, lesson 9: 百, 不能, 真的 and 10 more words.