Comments on: Numbers with Special Meanings

By: Walter

Walter — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:20:18 +0000

Just for the fun of it, 六 in the Hokkien/Fujian dialect happens to sound like ‘luck’.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:39:41 +0000

Take a look at http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/pagercodes.php, this is BEFORE sms, it’s pager mesage numerals where the numbers have sounds that almost correspond to words.

So Wendy521 as an IM id tells a LOT , hah hah…

By: 大羽

大羽 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:00:13 +0000

12580 Hot line or http://www.12580.com

12580‘s homonym : 一按我帮你 yī àn wǒ bāng nǐ

By: Maureen Kealy

Maureen Kealy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:03:43 +0000

The best phone number ever is:
098585858, where 8 stands for money (“ba” is close to “fa” 發, i.e 發財 = get rich) and 5 stands for I (as mentioned above, sounds like 我).

Everytime they say this phone number, they’re proclaiming “I’m rich! I’m rich!! I’m rich!!!”

By: Albert

Albert — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:21:11 +0000

@大羽,
Your English is fine! We’re all learning here. I think we can usually understand what you’re saying no problem. Very interesting about 顺溜 as one possible source for “liu” meaning “luck.” Also very interesting about the little mnemonic device for remembering the digits of pi. Is that common for children in school to use that as a memory aid?

Hobbes,
Great phone number! We’ll all call to congratulate you

Hellen,
Thanks for the insult I’ve added it to the MDBG dictionary (it should show up tomorrow).

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:58:50 +0000

二愣子：A dull, stupid person; a dolt; a rash fellow.
er 二 means foolish, it may come from some dialect.

By: Speaking in numbers | An Expatriate in Taiwan

Speaking in numbers | An Expatriate in Taiwan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:57:46 +0000

[...] in numbers Laowai Chinese recently made a post about numbers in everyday Chinese language in mainland China. I thought I would take the concept [...]

By: 大羽

大羽 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:15:11 +0000

The Circle Index π ≈ 3.1415926 homonym :

山间一寺一壶酒而乐。
shān jiān yī sì yī hú jiǔ ér lè.

There is a temple among the mountains, somebody hold a pot of liquor to drink happily.

By: Hobbes

Hobbes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:41:50 +0000

Well I chose my phone number in China because of it’s homonym. It includes 173 and 1748, which if you change the tones a bit sounds like 一起散，一起死吧。

Nice post, btw, keep ‘em coming

By: 大羽

大羽 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:51:56 +0000

@ Albert

Sometimes we can instinctly know what does it mean. But sometimes we can’t, additional explanation is prefered. But when we get the explanation, we can remember that more easily.

for example: http://www.56.com
I instinctly think that means I’m Luck (5 means我 wo， 6 means Luck)

But after I read Andy’s explanation, I would prefer his opinion.

56 is the homonyms of 无聊wú liáo Boring”， since it is a video sharing webstie and can make Bored person get more and more unboring.

But when Chinese read 4 or 8, I believe most people will instinctly think “Die” or “get rich”

——————

@ Albert

In northen China, especially in Shandong province,TianJin, Beijing area, ”二”have the meaning of “idiot, stupid, foolish”