328 How Much Is It?

Have you ever been to China and bought something? It’s always important to know how to ask “how much is it?” Jesse Edbrooke talks with ShaoLan about how to ask the price of something in Chinese in a polite way, avoiding a cultural mistake that ShaoLan recently made while in a restaurant in the USA! ShaoLan also teaches how to do some bargaining, which is important if you are in China, particularly if you are buying anything from a local market, where prices can vary quite a lot depending on your bargaining skill! Jesse and ShaoLan move on to discuss some other Chinese words that follow the same pattern as the words for “how much?”, allowing you to quickly learn how to ask a number of other extremely useful questions!

The way to ask “how much?” in Chinese is 多少. The first character 多 means “a lot” and 少 means “a little”, so together 多少 means “a lot a little?” or “how much?” Just add the character for “money” to be specific about asking the price of something “多少錢/多少钱?”

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How Much Is It?
多少錢? / 多少钱?
duō shao qián
Money
錢 / 钱
qián
How much
多少
duō shǎo
Many, much
duō
Few, little
shǎo
Size
大小
dà xiǎo
Trading, buying and selling
買賣 / 买卖
mǎi mài
Length
長短 / 长短
cháng duǎn
Left and right, to influence
左右
zuǒ yòu
I have money, I am rich
我有錢 / 我有钱
wǒ yǒu qián
I don’t have money, I am poor
我沒有錢 / 我没有钱
wǒ méi yǒu qián
Cheaper a bit, ok?
便宜一點, 好嗎? / 便宜一点,好吗?
pián yí yī diǎn, hǎo ma?
20% discount
八折
bā zhé
Discount
zhé
30% discount
七折
qī zhé
Half price
五折 or 半價 / 五折 or 半价
wǔ zhé or bàn jià
Full price
全價 / 全价
quán jià
Original price
原價 / 原价
yuán jià

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