十万
shí wàn
In Chinese, one hundred thousand is said as 十万 (shí wàn).
The phrase is used to denote the number that is ten times ten thousand.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of the number ten (十) and the unit for ten thousand (万).
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Cantonese, the equivalent of one hundred thousand is 十萬.
How does it change in a sentence?
Unlike English, which groups numbers by thousands (100,000), Chinese groups numbers by ten-thousands (10,000), so one hundred thousand is expressed as ten units of ten thousand.
How do you pronounce it?
shí wàn
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly try to translate 'one hundred thousand' literally as 一百千. However, this is not a valid way to express the number in Chinese.
Did you know?
- When writing the number 十万 on a check or legal document, Chinese speakers use a complex set of 'financial characters' called 大写. In this system, the character for ten changes from 十 to 拾 to prevent fraud.
- In modern Chinese online gaming and social media, you will often see '10w' used as shorthand for 十万. The 'w' stands for the pinyin word wàn, which means ten thousand.
- While 'one hundred thousand' is a specific number, the underlying unit 万 is often used poetically to mean 'infinity' or 'countless'. You will see this in phrases like 万岁, which literally means 'ten thousand years' but translates to 'long live'.
Examples in context
- 这个城市的汽车保有量已达十万辆。The number of cars in this city has reached one hundred thousand.This sentence is useful for seeing how to express the number of cars using 十万.Tatoeba #12568775 by omerfarukckmk, translation #12568777 by omerfarukckmk
- 截至二零零六年底，中国农村网民数为两千三百一十万人，这说明在六个月内共有一千四百三十万农民成为新的网民。By the end of 2006, the number of rural netizens in China was twenty three million one hundred thousand, showing that in six months a total of fourteen million, three hundred thousand rural Chinese got online.This sentence is useful for seeing how the number 十万 appears within larger figures.Tatoeba #767757 by eastasiastudent, translation #767761 by eastasiastudent
- 这家公司在一天内售出十万部手机。This company sold one hundred thousand mobile phones within a day.
- 佢哋賣咗十萬個手機。They sold one hundred thousand mobile phones.
- 这台电脑的价格大约是十万块。Zhè tái diànnǎo de jiàgé dàyuē shì shíwàn kuài.The price of this computer is about one hundred thousand yuan.
Example conversation
晓雯 and 志强 are discussing the budget for a new project.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen志强，我们这次的预算有多少？Zhìqiáng, wǒmen zhè cì de yùsuàn yǒu duōshǎo?Zhiqiang, how much is our budget this time?
- 志强 Zhiqiang大概有十万块钱。Dàgài yǒu shíwàn kuài qián.It is about one hundred thousand yuan.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen十万块够用吗？Shíwàn kuài gòu yòng ma?Is one hundred thousand enough?
- 志强 Zhiqiang我觉得应该可以。Wǒ juéde yīnggāi kěyǐ.I think it should be enough.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
