Chinese Vocabulary about Money

Every year, millions of people come to China, either for business, study or travel. No matter what kind of objective you have, once you are in China there’s no doubt that you have to deal with money. This article will give you an overall guide!
Chinese currency is called 元 yuán (or rénmínbì), and people put ‘kuài’ after the number for the amount of money, such as “three kuài.” But it’s far from enough to say you’ll be fine with money in China. So, let’s have a look at what kind of word, phrase or sentence you might be confronted with.

Part 1 Words related to money:

Coin - yìng bì 硬币	ATM - tí kuǎn jī 提款机
Tip - xiǎo fèi 小费	Wallet - qián bāo 钱包
Credit card - xìn yòng kǎ 信用卡	Receipt - fā piào 发票
Check / Cheque - zhī piào 支票	Dollar - měiyuán 美元
Cash in - xiàn jīn 现金	Bill - chāo piào 钞票
Small change - líng qián 零钱	Deposit - yā jīn 押金

Part 2 Daily situations

In this part, we will see the following situations when you need to deal with money, such as to ask for the bill, to break change or to ask for the price, etc. There are altogether 6 situations.
1. Ask for the bill:
- Hello, check, please.
Pinyin: Nǐhǎo, mǎidān. 你好，买单。

2. Ask for the price:
- How much per hour?
Pinyin: yí ge xiǎoshí duōshao qián? 一个小时多少钱？

- Is it free?
Pinyin: Miǎnfèi ma? 免费吗？

- Approximately how much money?
Pinyin: Dàgài duōshao qián? 大概多少钱？

3. Break into change:
- Break (a large bill or note) into small change
Pinyin: huànchéng língqián 换成零钱

- I would like to break this hundred-dollar bill.
Pinyin: Wǒ xiǎng bǎ zhè zhāng yìbǎi měiyuán huàn chéng língqián. 我想把这张一百美元换成零钱。

4. A problem with the change:
- The change is wrong
Pinyin: zhǎo de qián bú duì. 找的钱不对。

- Do you have small change?
Pinyin: yǒu méi yǒu líng qián? 有没有零钱？

5. Collect money/ Ask for receipt:
- Collect money
Pinyin: shōu qián 收钱

- Please give me receipt
Pinyin: qǐng gěi wǒ fāpiào. 请给我发票

6. A problem with money:
- I have lost my wallet
Pinyin: wǒ de qiánbāo diū le. 我的钱包丢了。

- His wallet was stolen
Pinyin: tā de qiánbāo bèi tōu le. 他的钱包被偷了。

- I don't have enough money
Pinyin: wǒde qián bú gòu. 我的钱不够。

- Worthless
Pinyin: bù zhí qián 不值钱

- Waste of money
Pinyin: làngfèi qián 浪费钱

- Worth a lot of money
Pinyin: hěn zhí qián 很值钱

7. Ask for a discount:
- Do you have a discount?
Pinyin: Nǐmen dǎzhé ma? 你们打折吗？
- Can you give me a cheaper price?
Pinyin: Kěyǐ piànyi yīdiǎnr ma? 可以便宜一点儿吗？
Now you have known some Chinese vocabulary about money. If you still have questions, If you still have questions, contact us here and let our teachers help you!