兩百 / 二百

[Everysing]

I remember reading in a grammar book that the "2" before 百, 千, and 萬 could be written 兩 or also 二.

However, what's the difference between these two? Is it that 兩 is much more common than 二?

 

[viajero_canjeado]

Seems like there's been a thorough thread on this subject already..

Anyway, to put it briefly, the two forms are used according to the context. For example, all those numbers you had, you would say 兩百, 兩千, 兩萬.

Whenever you're counting you always say 一二三, you wouldn't say 兩 there. Also, always 第二個.. and not 兩.

 

[Ghabi]

It may help to regard 兩 as "a pair/couple of". That's why it's never used as an ordinal number.

 

[samanthalee]

I remember reading in a grammar book that the "2" before 百, 千, and 萬 could be written 兩 or also 二.

The previous posts explains the difference between 兩 and 二 quite nicely.

Pertaining to the difference between 兩百 and 二百:
We usually use "兩百" when we are speaking, and it is okay to use "兩百" in text though "二百" is usually preferred. "二百" is also sometimes used in making announcements, in press conference and such, when the words spoken are more formal and as if read off from a text.

 

[Everysing]

Thanks everybody!

Seems like there's been a thorough thread on this subject already..

Hey, I try to be as good of a forum user as I can... I looked for such a thread before opening this one, but I couldn't find it. I would be glad if somebody could a provide a link to it though.

 

[samanthalee]

Thanks everybody!
Hey, I try to be as good of a forum user as I can... I looked for such a thread before opening this one, but I couldn't find it. I would be glad if somebody could a provide a link to it though.

Here it is: two - 二 or 两?
You couldn't find it because 兩 was written in Simplified Characters.

 

[viajero_canjeado]

As a side note, Samanthalee, I wonder how hard it'd be to merge the two systems so that a search in Traditional would also yield results in Simplified and vice versa?

 

[Everysing]

Here it is: two - 二 or 两?
You couldn't find it because 兩 was written in Simplified Characters.

Hey, you're right! I'll remember about that next time.

As a side note, Samanthalee, I wonder how hard it'd be to merge the two systems so that a search in Traditional would also yield results in Simplified and vice versa?

Searching for simplified by converting all text in titles in traditional to simplified would only require having access to some conversion library. Converting simplified to traditional? Oh my... (Simplified characters are often equivalent to two or three characters in traditional.)