HSK 1 · Question Words

多少 duōshǎo “how many” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 多少 means

  1. how many, how much
  2. number
  3. amount
  4. somewhat

How to say 多少

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale多duō1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale少shǎo3rd tone, dipping

多少 in a sentence

  1. 这东西多少钱？

    Zhè dōngxi duōshǎo qián?

    How much is this thing?

    Sentence #420698 from Tatoeba

  2. 学校里有多少学生？

    Xuéxiào lǐ yǒu duōshǎo xuésheng?

    How many students are in the school?

    Sentence #9961348 from Tatoeba

  3. 你跟多少人说了？

    Nǐ gēn duōshǎo rén shuō le?

    How many people have you told?

    Sentence #4879254 from Tatoeba

How 多少 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 多 (duō) with each of its parts in a different colour
多duōmany; much; more; a lot of
  • 夕evening · xī
  • 夕evening · xī

Memory aidTwo 夕 shapes stacked up: many.

The character 少 (shǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
少shǎofew
  • 小small · xiǎo
  • 丿slash · piě

Memory aidSmall 小 with one more stroke 丿: few, little.

How to write 多少

多 6 strokes · 少 4 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

多少 (duōshǎo) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 多少 (duōshǎo). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 多少

Words with 多

多duō · many多么duōme · how好多hǎoduō · a lot of许多xǔduō · many差不多chàbuduō · almost多余duōyú · superfluous多亏duōkuī · thanks to多元化duōyuánhuà · diversification见多识广jiànduōshíguǎng · well-informed and experienced

Words with 少

少shǎo · few不少bùshǎo · quite a few减少jiǎnshǎo · to lessen缺少quēshǎo · lack至少zhìshǎo · at least青少年qīngshàonián · adolescent

More words: Question Words

谁shéi · who什么shénme · what哪儿nǎr · where怎么zěnme · how怎么样zěnmeyàng · how is it几jǐ · how many (small)哪里nǎlǐ · where?哪个nǎge · which one?

FAQs

多少 (duōshǎo) means “how many, how much” or “number”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it duōshǎo: duō with a 1st tone, then shǎo with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 多少 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type duoshao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 多少 from the suggestions. Typing duoshao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
多少 is an HSK 1 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.