億 (yì) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

億

yì[yi4]Tone 4

100 million

HSK 2

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亿

Guru Deep Dive

English · 100 million

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:3

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left component (the person radical) narrow and upright, allowing the right component (意) to occupy the main right side with balanced horizontal lines.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 億 to 亿 by replacing the complex phonetic/semantic right side (意) with the simplified phonetic component 乙 (yǐ).

1. Meaning

100 million (the number 100,000,000)

Vast quantity, countless, innumerableTo calculate, to estimate (historical usage)

Number / Measure word / NounNeutral#numbers#quantities#math

Sample Usage

中国有人口十四亿。
Zhōngguó yǒu rénkǒu shísì yì.
China has a population of 1.4 billion.
万众一心
wàn zhòng yì xīn
Ten thousand people with one heart (united effort)

2. Sound

/[iː⁵¹]/Tone: 51

億

yìyi4

`(51)

=yì

Initial Consonant

Type: Palatal Glide (Zero Initial)

Sounds like: Zero initial (starts directly with the vowel sound i)

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip rests behind lower front teeth, blade raised close to the roof of the mouth for the high front vowel [i].

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes with ee in 'see'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ee'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, similar to a decisive command like 'No!' or 'Stop!' in English.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the 4th falling tone (yì) with the 1st high level tone (yī) or 2nd rising tone (yí).

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, definitive chop downward with your hand, mirroring the falling tone 5 to 1.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 3 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the left component (the person radical) narrow and upright, allowing the right component (意) to occupy the main right side with balanced horizontal lines.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 億 to 亿 by replacing the complex phonetic/semantic right side (意) with the simplified phonetic component 乙 (yǐ).

4. Components

Radical 亻 · Person radical (Human, people)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 亻 (Indicates human involvement or scale relating to people.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 乙 (original sound: yǐ / yì)

A person (亻) standing next to a winding path or second stem (乙), representing an immense, uncountable crowd of human beings equal to 100 million.

亻 Person / human classifier
乙 Phonetic clue providing the sound 'yi'

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

7· Phonetic Root: 意 (yì)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally written with the person radical (亻) combined with 意 (yì, meaning thought/intent) to denote a vast, uncountable multitude of thoughts or people, later simplified to use 乙 as the phonetic component.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from meaning a general enormous multitude or calculation to specifically representing the numerical value of 100 million in the modern Chinese number system.

In traditional Chinese numerology, large numbers progress by multiples of 10,000 (万), where 10,000万 equals one yì (100 million).

6. Sinosphere

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Picture a single person (亻) standing before a digital counter that instantly flashes 100 million (亿) with a flash of lightning shaped like the letter Z (乙).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

忆

yìto recall, memoryUses the heart radical (忄) on the left instead of the person radical (亻), connecting memory to the heart.

艺

yìart, talentUses the grass radical (艹) on top, representing cultivated talents growing like plants.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

忆(yì)

亿 uses the person radical (亻) for population/numbers, whereas 忆 uses the heart radical (忄) for thoughts and memories.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

中國的人口超過十四[___]。

Clue: yì

Common Learner Pitfall

Mistaking the character for 忆 (yì - memory) because of the identical pronunciation and similar phonetic part.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see '亿', what number does it represent in Chinese counting?

Production: How do you write the character for '100 million' with Pinyin 'yì'?

億yì100 million

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