Numbers
- 10,000: Numbers larger than ten thousand. In Chinese, 10 thousand is read as one myriad (萬), 100 thousand as 10 myriad, one million as 100 myriad. Even so, most people will not use the English word "myriad" so this type of English is hardly ever seen.
- Fractions: "three over four" (or three fourth) may wrongly be taken as "four over three". In Chinese, the denominator is read before the numerator. For example, three-fourths in Chinese is "四分之三", literally "out of four portions, three".
- Discounts: the Chinese way of saying 10% off is "90% of the original price". This is often written as 9折 (or 九折) which is understood to mean "discounted to 9/10 of the original price". When two digits are given the divisor is understood to be 100, e.g. 75折 (or 七五折) means 25% off.
Read more about this topic: Hong Kong English
Famous quotes containing the word numbers:
“All ye poets of the age,
All ye witlings of the stage,
Learn your jingles to reform,
Crop your numbers to conform.
Let your little verses flow
Gently, sweetly, row by row;
Let the verse the subject fit,
Little subject, little wit.
Namby-Pamby is your guide,
Albion’s joy, Hibernia’s pride.”
—Henry Carey (1693?–1743)
“Old age equalizes—we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)