四舍五入
sìshěwǔrù
Rounding in Mandarin is 四舍五入 (sìshěwǔrù).
The term 四舍五入 is used as a noun to describe the mathematical process of rounding, but it can also function as a verb phrase in a sentence.
Meaning: the act of rounding a mathematical value (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase 四舍五入 literally means 'discard four, enter five', referring to the rule of rounding.
Which one should you use?
四舍五入 means rounding to the nearest integer. The phrase 取整 means to round off or to take the integer part.
How do you pronounce it?
sìshěwǔrù
Did you know?
- The word 舍 in 四舍五入 means 'to abandon' or 'to give up', which is also the root for the word 'dormitory' 舍 in modern Mandarin.
- The structure of 四舍五入 is a 'chengyu' or four-character idiom. While many such idioms are based on ancient philosophy or legends, this one is a purely technical instruction disguised as a poetic phrase.
- Unlike English, where 'rounding' is a general term, the phrase 四舍五入 explicitly encodes the digit 4 and the digit 5 into the name of the action itself.
Examples in context
- 我们需要进行四舍五入We need to round to the nearest integer.
- 请把结果取整Please round off the result.
- 这个数四舍五入就可以了You can round off this number.
- 我们用近似值代替精确值Let's replace the exact value with an approximation.
- 这里的四舍五入规则是什么？Zhèlǐ de sì shě wǔ rù guīzé shì shénme?What is the rounding rule here?
- 这个结果是通过四舍五入得到的。Zhège jiéguǒ shì tōngguò sì shě wǔ rù dédào de.This result was obtained through rounding.
- 我们在计算时需要进行四舍五入。Wǒmen zài jìsuàn shí xūyào jìnxíng sì shě wǔ rù.We need to perform rounding during the calculation.
Example conversation
Two colleagues are discussing the accuracy of a financial report.
- 雨婷 Yuting伟，这个数字不对，需要四舍五入吗？Wěi, zhège shùzì bùduì, xūyào sì shě wǔ rù ma?Wei, this number is incorrect, do we need to do some rounding?
- 伟 Wei是的，雨婷，请保留两位小数。Shì de, Yǔtíng, qǐng bǎoliú liǎng wèi xiǎoshù.Yes, Yuting, please keep two decimal places.
- 雨婷 Yuting好的，我马上处理。Hǎo de, wǒ mǎshàng chǔlǐ.Okay, I will handle it immediately.
- 伟 Wei谢谢你的细心。Xièxiè nǐ de xìxīn.Thank you for your attention to detail.
