Monthly Mandarin Grammar Highlight-March, 2023

Greeting from  Apan

Hello everybody, my name is Apan, I am a virtual teacher from Panda Education. From now on, I am going to explain some mandarin grammar highlights in every month. I do hope you will like my lesson. By the way, I have a younger sister whose name is Ada, you will meet her soon!

I believe you have been confused about the usage of “二"(èr) and"两"(liǎng) for a long time. Today, I will solve this puzzle for you.

01

First of all, “二"(èr) is usually used to represent digital numbers, serial numbers, and telephone numbers.

Example:

二(èr), 十二(shíèr), 二十(èrshí), 第二(dìèr)，五四三二(wǔsìsānèr), 一等(yīděng)

“two”, “twelve”, “twenty”, “five、four、three、two、one”

"两"(liǎng) can only be used in front of "hundred, thousand, million, billion", and used in oral speaking.

Example:

shànghǎi yǒu liǎngqiānduōwàn rénkǒu。

上海 有 两千多万 人口。

 Shanghai has a population of more than 20 million.

02

Second, as single digit 2, "两"(liǎng) is usually used before quantifiers and some nouns that can be quantifiers.

Example:

两个(liǎnggè)、两辆(liǎngliàng)、两斤(liǎngjīn)、两年(liǎngnián)、两点(liǎngdiǎn)、两岁(liǎngsuì

two, two cars, two pounds, two years, two o’clock、 two years old

03

People in the northeast of China are all social friends and fierce bandits. No matter what the situation is, they can chat with the unknown people around them.

Third, “二"(èr) and"两"(liǎng) can be both used before the quantifiers weight、length、capacity.

Example:

二(èr)/两(liǎng)斤(jīn)、二(èr)/两(liǎng)厘(lí)米(mǐ)、二(èr)/两(liǎng)升(shēng)

two jin（measure word for 500 grams）, two centimeters, two liters

If the quantifier is ”两"(liǎng), “二"(èr) is more reasonable to be used before两"(liǎng)。

Example:

二两(èrliǎng)生煎(shēngjiān）

two liang shengjian(fried pork buns)

04

Fourth, when talking about the amount of money, generally use ”两"(liǎng)：liǎng kuai, liǎng mao. But 2.2 yuan, we say liǎng kuài èr.

In addition, “二"(èr) can be directly used in front of some nouns, means "second", refers to a specific thing. For example "二月(èryuè)" actually refers to the second month of a year, "二楼(èrlóu)" is generally to say the second floor, "class two" is to say the second class of a grade.

In fact, general speaking: ”两"(liǎng) is mainly used in front of quantifiers, while “二"(èr) is mainly used in numbers, telephone numbers and ordinal words. In addition, the word ”两"(liǎng) itself can also be used as a quantifier.

Example:

qǐng gěi wǒ èrliǎng shēngjiān。

请 给 我 二两 生煎。

please give me two liang of shengjian.

Well, that's the end of today's grammar. I hope it could help you in future. See you again for the next month.