Number, quantity, time and date 数字、数量、时间与日期

Chinese has no plural ending, so quantity = number + the CORRECT 量词 + noun, and 个 does not fit every noun. ✗ 一个书 → ✓ 一本书 (yì běn shū); ✗ 三个茶 → ✓ 三杯茶 (sān bēi chá); ✗ 两个票 → ✓ 两张票 (liǎng zhāng piào — flat things take 张). Learn each noun with its 量词: 本 (books), 张 (flat things), 杯 (cups), 条 (long things), 位 (people, polite), 口 (family). And two tickets = 两张票, not 二张票.

A time-WHEN expression must come BEFORE the verb, unlike English which often puts it last. ✗ 我去上海明天 (calque of "I go to Shanghai tomorrow") → ✓ 我明天去上海 (Wǒ míngtiān qù Shànghǎi). ✗ 我们见面下午三点 → ✓ 我们下午三点见面 (jiànmiàn = meet). Order = subject – time – (place) – verb. A DURATION is different — it follows the verb (我等了半个小时). Check the clock/calendar time sits before the verb.

Numbers, times and prices must be PLAUSIBLE — reread what you wrote. A unit slip turns 四十分钟 (sìshí fēnzhōng, 40 minutes) into an absurd 一个月零四十个小时 (one month and forty hours). ✗ 星期八 (no eighth weekday) → ✓ 星期日/星期天 (Sunday); ✗ 十三月 → ✓ 十二月 is the last month. A clock time uses 点/分, but a LENGTH of time uses 个小时/分钟/天. Give ONE quantity per mark — no choice such as 三个/四个.

When a number has an empty internal place you MUST insert 零 (líng), or the value changes. ✗ 一百五 does NOT mean 105 — it is 150 (一百五十 shortened). ✓ 105 = 一百零五 (yìbǎi líng wǔ); ✓ 1,020 = 一千零二十; one 零 covers several empty places: 一千零五 (1,005). Add no 零 when the gap is at the END: 一百五十 (150), 三千五百 (3,500). Read big unit down, adding 零 where a middle place is skipped.

Dates go BIG to SMALL — year, month, day, weekday — the reverse of common English order. ✗ 八号七月 (day before month, calque of "8th of July") → ✓ 七月八号 (qī yuè bā hào, 8 July). Full: 二〇二四年七月八号星期一 (Monday 8 July 2024). Read a YEAR digit by digit: ✓ 二〇二四年 (èr líng èr sì nián) — ✗ not 两千零二十四年. Use 号 (hào) for the day in speech, 日 (rì) in writing.

二 (èr) and 两 (liǎng) both mean "two" but are NOT interchangeable. Use 两 before a MEASURE WORD and 百/千/万: ✓ 两个人 (liǎng gè rén), ✓ 两杯茶, ✓ 两百块, ✓ 两点 (2 o'clock). Use 二 in the tens/units digit and ORDINALS: ✓ 十二 (shí'èr, 12), ✓ 二十二, ✓ 第二 (dì-èr), ✓ 二楼. So 12 o'clock = 十二点 and the second time = 第二次. Wrong choices like 二个人 or 第两 are errors — decide by the word's job, not meaning.

A duration needs the right unit, and only some take 个. 小时 (hour) and 月 (month) DO take 个: 三个小时 (sān gè xiǎoshí), 三个月; 星期 (week) too: 三个星期. But 分钟 (minute), 天 (day) and 年 (year) do NOT: ✓ 二十分钟, ✓ 三天, ✓ 三年 — ✗ 三个年, ✗ 三个天. And the whole duration follows the verb: 我住了三个星期 (wǒ zhù le sān gè xīngqī), not 我三个星期住了.