Hi there! I am Studyfin, your friendly tutor. Today we will learn how to count to three in Mandarin Chinese!
In Mandarin Chinese, words can be written as cool characters. The word for 'number' is Shùzì. Let us look at how we write the numbers one, two, and three.
The number one is written as a single flat line. It is called 'yī'. It looks just like a single stick lying down.
The number two is written with two flat lines. It is called 'èr'. The top line is shorter, and the bottom line is longer.
The number three has three flat lines. It is called 'sān'. The middle line is the shortest, and the bottom line is the longest.
✏️ Worked example
Imagine you see three birds sitting on a fence. Let us write down the number of birds in Chinese characters step by step.
First, we count the birds. We have one, two, and three birds.
Next, we remember that the Chinese character for three is 'sān'.
We start by drawing the top line. This line is medium-sized.
Then, we draw the middle line. We must make this line the shortest.
Finally, we draw the bottom line. This line must be the longest of all three.
Now we have written the character 'sān' for our three birds!
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