Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

Fractions, percentages, decimals, half, and multiples

6.6

6.6.5 Indicating multiples of a quantity with 倍 bèi

倍 bèi is a classifier and is always preceded by a number: 一倍 yī bèi, 两倍/兩倍 liǎng bèi,

三倍 sān bèi, etc.

一倍 yī bèi means ‘one fold,’ or ‘one time more than a given quantity.’ 两倍/兩倍 liǎng bèi

means ‘twofold,’ 三倍 sān bèi means ‘threefold,’ etc.

倍 bèi often occurs with expressions that imply an increase:

价格都增加了一倍了。

價格都增加了一倍了。

Jiàgé dōu zēngjiā le yī bèi le.

Prices have all doubled (increased by one-fold).

今年这本书比去年贵了一倍。

今年這本書比去年貴了一倍。

Jīnnián zhè běn shū bǐ qùnián guì le yī bèi.

This year this book is twice as expensive as it was last year.

倍 bèi also occurs in equational sentences such as the following:

我的书是你的书的两倍。

我的書是你的書的兩倍。

Wǒ de shū shì nǐ de shū de liǎng bèi.

I have twice as many books as you.

(lit. ‘My books are the equivalent of two times your books.’)

If 半 bàn ‘half ’ occurs, it follows 倍 bèi:

今年学中文的学生是去年的一倍半。

今年學中文的學生是去年的一倍半。

Jīnnián xué Zhōngwén de xuésheng shì qùnián de yī bèi bàn.

The number of students studying Chinese this year is 1^12 times greater than last year.

C6.6.4

6.6.6 discounts, sales, and percentage off the price

The expression for a discount or sale is the verb phrase 打折 dǎ zhé.

Discounts are expressed as a percentage of the original or full price.

九折 jiǔ zhé is 90% of the original price, or 10% off. 七点五折/七點五折 qīdiǎn wǔ zhé is

75% of the original price, or 25% off. Here are additional examples of discounts. Discounts

are written with either Chinese or Arabic numerals.

8 折 bā zhé 80% of original price 20% off

5 折 wǔ zhé 50% of original price 50% off

or or

半折 bàn zhé half of original price

二折 èr zhé 20% of original price 80% off

一折 yī zhé 10% of original price 90% off

To find out if an item is discounted or on sale, you can ask:

打折吗？ or 打不打折？ or 有折吗？

打折嗎？ 有折嗎？

Dǎ zhé ma? Dǎ bù dǎ zhé? Yǒu zhé ma?

Do you discount? Do you discount? Is there a discount?