千
thousand
qiān
What does 千 mean?
千 (qiān) is the Chinese number 'thousand' (1,000). It works exactly like English in small multiples — 三千 (3,000), 五千 (5,000) — but Chinese groups large numbers in units of ten-thousand (万 wàn), not thousand, so '20,000' is 两万 (liǎng wàn), not 二十千. That single fact trips up most learners: above 9,999, stop counting in 千 and switch to 万.
When 千 is the leading digit, '1,000' is usually 一千 (yì qiān) — the 一 is not dropped the way it can be after a higher unit. 千 also appears in fixed expressions like 千万 ('ten million,' literally 'thousand ten-thousands,' but used colloquially as 'by all means / never') and 千万别 ('absolutely don't')
Character breakdown
thousand
Memory hook: 千 looks like a person 人 with a horizontal stroke through them — picture a crowd of one thousand.
Example sentences
这个手机三千块钱。
Zhè ge shǒujī sān qiān kuài qián.
This phone costs three thousand yuan.
neutral
我们学校有两千个学生。
Wǒmen xuéxiào yǒu liǎng qiān ge xuéshēng.
Our school has two thousand students.
neutral
一公里等于一千米。
Yì gōnglǐ děngyú yì qiān mǐ.
One kilometer equals one thousand meters.
written
你千万别忘了。
Nǐ qiānwàn bié wàng le.
Whatever you do, don't forget.
spoken
Common phrases with 千
Don't confuse 千 with
万 is 'ten thousand' (10,000), the next big counting unit after 千. Chinese groups large numbers by 万, not 千 — so 20,000 is 两万, never 二十千. The hanzi look unrelated; don't mix the units.
干 ('dry' or 'do') looks almost identical to 千 but has a flat top stroke instead of the slanted dash. 千 has a leftward-slanting top; 干 is straight.
FAQ
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