Numbers

Let us learn how to say numbers in Teochew Uê today.

a quarter ¼	si3hung7ze1zêg8	四分之一
three quarters ¾	si3hung7ze1san1	四分之三
a third ⅓	san1hung7ze1zêg8	三分之一
two thirds ⅔	san1hung7ze1no6	三分之二
½ half of	zêg8guêh8	一橛
½ half	zêg8buan3	一半
½ half	no6hung7ze1zêg8	二分之一
1.2	zêg8 diam2 ri6	一點二｜一点二
1st first	ig4	一
1	zêg8	一
2nd second	ri6	二
2	no6	二
10	zab8	十
11	zab8ig4	十一
12	zab8ri6	十二
20	ri6zab8	二十
21	rih8ig4	廿一
21	ri6zab8ig4	二十一
30	san1zab8	三十
32	sab4ri6	卅二
32	san1zab8ri6	三十二
40	si3zab8	四十
42	siab4ri6	卌二
42	si3zab8ri6	四十
100	bêh4	百二
101	bêh4 kang3 ig4	百空一
112	bêh4 ig4 ri6	百一二
120	bêh4ri6	百二
220	no6bêh4ri6	二百二
1,000	coin1	千
1,001	coin1 kang3 kang3 ig4	千空空一
1,040	coin1 kang3 si3	千空四
1,100	coin1ig4	千一
1,160	coin1ig4lag8	千一六
10,000	bhuang7	萬
11,900	bhuang7ig4gao2	萬一九
12,900	bhuang7ri6gao2	萬二九
41,000	si3bhuang7ig4	四萬一
1,000,000 [1 million]	bêh4bhuang7	百萬
100,000,000 [100 million]	êg8	億
100,000,000	bhuang7bhuang7	萬萬
1,000,000,000 [1 billion]	zab8êg8	十億
1,000,000,000,000 [1 trillion]	diao6	兆

We do not say bhuang7bhuang7 and I just wanted to illustrate how much is êg8.

Phone numbers:

1001	iao1 lêng5 lêng5 iao1	么零零么
1001	iao1 kang3 kang3 iao1	么空空么

Time

1 o’clock	ig4 diam2	一點
2 o’clock	ri6 diam2	二點
22:00 hours	ri6 zab8 ri6 diam2	二十二點
2 hours	no6 diam2 zêng1	二點鐘

And for two hours, we do NOT say no6 diam2 zêng1 tao5 二點鐘頭 nor do we say no6 zêng1 tao5 二鐘頭。

I have been thinking why some people say no6 diam2 for 2 o’clock and I think it is because they are translating from Mandarin 兩點 for 2’clock. The original character 本字 for no6 is 兩。

People just have to realise that Mandarin and Teochew have different language roots and they follow different grammar rules and then people must stop doing a wholescale Mandarin Teochew translation and get their pronunciation / words all wrong. If you are not sure, look up a Teochew dictionary. If you cannot read Chinese, then find a friend who can to read it for you. OR ask your grandparents or great grandparents, and perhaps they still remember the original Teochew language. 

Others:

ground floor	tao5 ing5	頭沿
In the US, the first floor is the ground floor, like the Chinese.
first building	tao5 goin1	頭間

I have repeated this many times and I am going to repeat again. We Teochew people do NOT like to begin a sentence with the word zêg8 and therefore we want to say one thousand people we say coiⁿ1 nang5 千人. For one person, we do NOT say zêg8 gai5 nang5 一個人 which is a Mandarin version of Teochew. Can you remember how to say one person in Teochew? 

四角號碼