万 (wàn) — ten thousand
HSK 1 | number | ten thousand; the base large-number unit in Chinese counting
万 (wàn)
The word for ten thousand; Chinese groups numbers in units of 10,000 (万) rather than 1,000 (thousand), so learning to think in 万 is essential for large numbers: 一万 = 10,000, 十万 = 100,000, 一百万 = 1,000,000.
Meanings
- [number] Ten thousand (10,000).
- [adverb] Absolutely, by all means (in compounds: 万一, just in case; 千万, whatever you do).
Example Sentences
这套房子卖一百万。 Zhè tào fángzi mài yī bǎi wàn. This apartment sells for one million yuan.
中国有十四亿人口。 Zhōngguó yǒu shísì yì rénkǒu. China has a population of 1.4 billion.
他的公司有两万名员工。 Tā de gōngsī yǒu liǎng wàn míng yuángōng. His company has twenty thousand employees.
万一下雨，我们就不去了。 Wànyī xià yǔ, wǒmen jiù bú qù le. Just in case it rains, we will not go.
Collocations
| Collocation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 一万 (yī wàn) | ten thousand |
| 十万 (shí wàn) | one hundred thousand |
| 百万 (bǎi wàn) | one million |
| 万一 (wànyī) | just in case, what if |
| 千万 (qiānwàn) | ten million; absolutely, by all means |
| 万岁 (wànsuì) | long live (ten thousand years) |
Memory Hook
万 (wàn) is the Chinese "grand scale" unit. In English you group by thousands; in Chinese you group by ten-thousands. Think: "wan" = "one grand group of ten thousand."