Many students confuse about “二” and “两”, so today we talk about “二” and “两”.
The two words both stand for two, but they are different in usage.
1. “二” is used in ordinal number, decimal and fraction.
For example: 第二天 (the second day), 第二次 (the second time),第二名 (second place), 三分之二 (two-thirds), 一点二五 (1.25)
And “两” is mostly used before ordinary quantifiers.
Notice that “二” is widely used in traditional Chinese measurement.
二尺布 (2 feet long cloth), 二里地 (1 kilometer)
2. The digit “two” in the “个” (the first) or “十” (the second) position to the left of the decimal point is mostly pronounced as “二”, such as二十二, while in “千” (the fourth), “万” (the fifth) or “亿” (the ninth) position, is mostly pronounced “两”. When a whole is divided into two halves, we say in Chinese it is divided into “两半儿”.
3. “两” can also stand for “some” and “several”, but “二” can not.
“我还想多住两天” (I want to live a few more days.)
“我还想多玩两天” (I want to play a few more days.)
Learning Chinese is fun as it has different characters with different expressions. On my opinion, this is the most interesting part of learning mandarin.
If you agree with me, I guess you’d better get to know the usage of Chinese characters as much as you can. Sometimes it will be awkward when you use the wrong Chinese characters or words under the inappropriate circumstances.
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