Textbook · HSK 2
At the Market 买东西
玛丽 heads to the market for 陈阿姨's noodle shop and haggles over fruit, picking up prices, big numbers, and the two measure words that count almost everything else you buy.
Read the conversation below once, straight through, before we take it apart. 陈阿姨 needs fruit for the noodle shop, so she sends 玛丽 to buy some, alone, for the first time. Watch for the same answer-then-ask rhythm from every earlier chapter, just doing new work now. When 玛丽 thinks the price is too high, she does not go quiet and pay it. She comments 太贵了, then asks straight out for a better price. Watch too for how prices actually get said out loud, and for the small words that let you count anything at all, not just people and years.
ⓘ 块 is what mouths say for money
一百块钱 is a hundred kuai. 块 is the everyday word for a unit of Chinese money, the one people actually say out loud. 钱 just means money in general, and it can tag along after the number, but you can also drop it: 一百块 alone already means a hundred kuai.
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A few minutes later, 玛丽 is standing at a table piled with fruit. A seller she has never met calls out to her before she can even ask.
ⓘ 便宜 is pián yi
便宜 means cheap, and every seller at every stall says it about their own goods. Say it pián yi, with a light, quick second syllable, not the fuller tone you might expect from reading 宜 on its own. You will hear this word constantly at any market.
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多少 does the asking here, same as it always has. No new question word is needed just because the answer is now a price instead of an age or a phone number.
ⓘ 元 is what price tags write, 块 is what mouths say
You will see 元 on every receipt and price sign, printed right after the number: 十元, 一百元. Out loud almost nobody says 元. People say 块 instead, so a sign reading 十元 gets read aloud as 十块. It is the very same amount of money, just two different habits, one for writing and one for talking.
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The little paper sign stuck into the fruit actually reads 十元, but nobody reads it aloud that way. Out loud it becomes 十块. Same money, one written form and one spoken one.
ⓘ 贵 and 便宜 are opposites, and asking for a lower price is normal here
贵 means expensive. Pair it with 太...了, 太贵了, and you have the single most useful sentence at any market. Asking a seller to 便宜卖, sell it cheap, is not rude the way it might feel back home. A little bargaining is just how buying works at a stall like this, and most sellers expect it and even enjoy it.
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He does not argue. He drops the price and moves on. That is how a real bargaining exchange usually goes here, quick and friendly, over in just a few lines.
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东西 literally means east west, but together the two directions just mean thing or stuff, the generic word for an item you are not naming more exactly. It is not one of this chapter's ten new words, but you will hear it constantly at any market, so it is worth picking up as one chunk: 东西.
Notice that 玛丽 never just accepts the first number she hears. She comments 太贵了, then asks 你能便宜卖吗？, and 卖水果的 answers with a lower price instead of arguing back. That is still the same comment-then-question rhythm from every earlier chapter, just doing a new job now, getting a fair price instead of trading names or ages. Once the fruit is bought, a different kind of word has also been doing quiet work in the background: 个 counted the fruit, but Chinese has other measure words too, one for nearly every shape of thing you might buy.
Why 卖 (to sell) has 买 (to buy) folded right inside it
Look closely at 卖 and you will find 买 sitting right inside it, with a small 十 shape stacked over the top. That is not a coincidence to memorize away. The two words share almost the same shape because they describe the same transaction from two sides of the counter: 买 is what 玛丽 does, 卖 is what the fruit seller does, and the character for one grew directly out of the character for the other. Once you already know 买, 卖 is really just 买 wearing a small hat.
How 十 stretches into 百 and 千 without a single new number word
You already know 十 means ten, and that every number from eleven to ninety-nine is just 十 combined with digits you already have. 百 and 千 keep stretching that very same pattern outward instead of starting over. 一百 is one hundred, 三百 is three hundred, 一千 is one thousand, 三千 is three thousand. A market stall selling fruit for a few 块 a piece rarely needs 百 or 千 on its own, but the total for a big basket can climb into the hundreds fast, and any receipt, rent, or salary in China moves in 百 and 千 as a matter of course. Learn the pattern once here and every larger number you read in Chinese from now on already makes sense.
Place your bets. A price tag at the market reads 十元. A friend asks how much it costs and you answer out loud. Which word do you actually say, 元 or 块? Guess, then reveal.
块. Signs and receipts are written in 元, but spoken Chinese almost always switches to 块. 十元 written on the tag comes out of your mouth as 十块. Same money, two different jobs.
个 has been doing quiet work behind almost every number in this book so far, 几个人, 一个朋友, 十个 fruit at the market. It is the safe, default measure word Chinese reaches for when a noun does not have a more specific one of its own. Plenty of nouns do have their own, though, and two of the most common show up the moment you buy anything besides fruit: 件 and 张.
Why 件 counts an item but 张 counts a table
Every counted thing in Chinese gets a measure word, and the choice is not random, it tracks the shape or kind of the thing. 件 counts individual items and matters, 一件东西, one item. Its two halves, 亻 (a person) and 牛 (an ox), sketch someone handling one animal at a time, which is close to what 件 still does today, taking things one at a time. 张 counts things that are flat and open, paper, tickets, and tables among them, 一张桌子, one table. 张 grew out of an old word for drawing a bow, 弓 (a bow) stretched wide by 长 (long), and a bow pulled taut is exactly that, flat and stretched open, the same shape 张 still counts today.
Bet first. You are buying one small item at the market, and at the next table over, one table itself. Which measure word goes with which, 件 or 张? Guess, then reveal.
件 for the item, 一件东西, and 张 for the table, 一张桌子. 件 counts items and matters; 张 counts things that are flat and open.
Last bet. A seller quotes you 十块钱一个 and you think that's too much. What do you say back, using 太...了 and then a question asking for a cheaper price? Predict, then reveal.
太贵了！你能便宜卖吗？ You comment first, 太贵了, then ask, 你能便宜卖吗？ Comment, then question, even while haggling.
That is the whole chapter. Ten words, and you can already read a price, haggle a little, and count almost anything you buy.
- 钱 (qián): money
- 块 (kuài): the spoken word for a unit of money, kuai
- 卖 (mài): to sell
- 便宜 (pián yi): cheap
- 贵 (guì): expensive
- 元 (yuán): the written word for a unit of money, yuan
- 百 (bǎi): hundred
- 千 (qiān): thousand
- 件 (jiàn): the measure word for items and matters
- 张 (zhāng): the measure word for flat, open things like paper, tickets, and tables
Comment first with 太贵了 or 很便宜, then ask 你能便宜卖吗？, and count whatever you buy with the measure word that matches its shape. Practice it in the study room, then go bargain for something yourself.