千 qiān thousand
thousand; countless
How to remember 千: ㇒ falling stroke + 十 ten = thousand. The girl adds a sneaky falling stroke to the ten on her pocket-money wish list, hoping dad reads it as a thousand.
Component breakdown
千 = ㇒ falling stroke + 十 ten
- ㇒ falling stroke
- 十 ten
The girl adds a sneaky falling stroke to the ten on her pocket-money wish list, hoping dad reads it as a thousand.
How it came to be
A person with one stroke drawn across the body. The figure is there for the sound and the stroke is the count: a tally written on a picture, not a picture of a thousand things.
How it is used
- Thousand - 一千 (yìqiān) 1,000, 三千 (sānqiān) 3,000; you must say 一千, not bare 千, for exactly 1,000.
- Used loosely for countless in set phrases - 千万 (qiānwàn) be sure to / by all means (lit. ten-million), 成千上万 (chéngqiān-shàngwàn) thousands upon thousands.
Characters built with 千
Words with 千
- 千万qiānwànten millionHSK 4
- 千克qiānkèkilogramHSK 4
- 千家万户qiānjiā-wànhùevery family (idiom)HSK 6
- 成千上万chéngqiān-shàngwànliterally by the thousands and tens of thousandsHSK 6
- 千变万化qiānbiàn-wànhuàcountless changesHSK 7
- 千方百计qiānfāng-bǎijìliterally thousand ways, a hundred plansHSK 7
- 千军万马qiānjūn-wànmǎmagnificent army with thousands of men and horsesHSK 8
- 千姿百态qiānzī-bǎitàito come in many different shapesHSK 8
- 千钧一发qiānjūn-yífàliterally a thousand pounds hangs by a threadHSK 8
Example sentences
- 我有一千美金。 Wǒ yǒu yīqiān Měijīn.I've got one thousand U.S. dollars.
- 千万不要挑拨夫妻关系。 Qiānwàn búyào tiǎobō fūqī guānxi.Never sow discord between husband and wife.