Practise the thinking. Keep the judgement.
Chinese numbers: 二 and 两
Original Chinese study material with English explanations. Simplified Chinese with pinyin; beginner, intermediate and advanced are editorial difficulty labels.
二 (èr) is used when counting and reading digits. 两 (liǎng) is common before classifiers when the quantity is two. 一 (yī) means one; its spoken tone changes in many combinations.
一、二、三、四、五。
Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ.
One, two, three, four, five.
两个人买了二十张票。
Liǎng ge rén mǎi le èrshí zhāng piào.
Two people bought twenty tickets.
Use 二 in 二十 (twenty) and 第二 (second). Number choices around hundreds and thousands have additional variation.
Try it
Choose the ordinary expression for two people.
- 两个人
- 第二个人
- 二十个人
Answer and explanation
两个人. 两个人 is a quantity; 第二个人 is the second person.