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Counting and Language

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Sunday, 24 May 2015, at 6:43 p.m.

In Response To: Counting and Language (Jake Jacobs)

Jake wrote:

so you could say either erbai or liangbai for 200; knowing when to use which is the sort of knowledge a native speaker acquires.

I already emailed Bob about Chinese, but I didn't say anything about the issue you've flagged here, A rough-and-ready approximate rule is that if you're actually counting, "198, 199, 200" then you'll say, "erbai," but if you're talking about 200 of something (e.g., people) then you'll use "liangbai." In some contexts you can use either.

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