Chinese measurements in pinyin

Chinese Measurements in PinYin

by zhang¹ ju¹ li³

Writing various measurements in PinYin, from which abbreviations can be obtained, is more convenient than their Chinese character (han⁴zi⁴) counterparts. The following tables attest to this point.

TIME
Time	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
1:00	1dian³	1d
3:10	3dian³ 10fen¹	3d 10f
4:15	4dian³ 15fen¹	4d 15f
8:30 am	shang⁴wu³ 8dian³ 30fen¹	sw 8d 30f
5:26 pm	xia⁴wu³ 5dian³ 26fen¹	xw 5d 26f

YEARS
Year	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
1958	1958nian²	1958n

DAYS OF WEEK
Day	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
Monday	xing¹qi¹i¹	xq-1
Tuesday	xing¹qi¹ar⁴	xq-2
Wednesday	xing¹qi¹san¹	xq-3
. . .	. . .	. . .
Sunday	xing¹qi¹tian¹ xing¹qi¹ri⁴	xq-t, xqt xq-r, xqr

MONTHS
Month	pin¹ yin¹	Abbreviation
January	1yue⁴	1y
February	2yue⁴	2y
. . .	. . .	. . .
December	12yue⁴	12y

DAYS OF MONTH
Day	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
1st	1hao⁴	1h
2nd	2hao⁴	2h
24th	24hao⁴	24h
31st	31hao⁴	31h

Dates

May 17, 1988, Monday:
1988nian² 5yue⁴ 17hao⁴, xing¹qi¹yi¹ = 1988n 5y 17h, xq1

10:31 AM, December 30, 1467
1467nian² 12yue⁴ 30ri⁴ shang⁴wu³ 10dian³ 31fen¹
= 1467n 12y 30r sw 10d 41f

LENGTHS OF TIME
Length	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
1 second	1miao³zhong¹	1mz
6minutes	6fen¹zhong¹	6fz
8 hours	8g xiao³shi²	8g/xs
15 days	15tian¹	15t
7 days and 40 minutes	7tian¹ 40fen¹zhong¹	7t 40fz
9 months	9g yue⁴	9g/y
half a year	ban⁴nian²	b/n
10 year and 18 seconds	10 nian² 0 18miao³zhong¹	10n 0 18mz

LENGTHS
Length	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
4 millimeters	4 hao²mi³	4hm
7 centimeters	7Li²mi³	7Lm
165 decimeters	165 fen¹mi³	165fm
5 meters	5 mi³	5m
924 kilometers	924 gong¹li³	924gl

Note: In Li²mi³ and Lm, the letter'L' is uppercase, to look different from the numeral '1'.

AREAS
Area	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
1 sq. meter	1ping²fang¹mi³ 1ping²mi³	1pfm 1pm
5 sq. kilometers	5ping²fang¹gong¹li³ 5ping²li³	5pfgl 5pl

WEIGHTS
Weight	pin¹yin¹	Abbreviation
3 gram	3ke⁴	3k
50 kilograms	50gong¹jin¹	50gj
10 tons	10dun¹	10dn

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