--- title: Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★ — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★», a lesson of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: This olympiad mixes the whole course into puzzles: tones that change words, tones that quietly change inside phras --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/) / Olympiad: tone detectives and number p… # Olympiad: tone detectives and number puzzles ★★★ Lesson 31 of the chinese street course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/0/) — This olympiad mixes the whole course into puzzles: tones that change words, tones that quietly change inside phrases, numbers built like Lego, days that have numbers, and twelve zodiac animals going round and round. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/1/) — Every puzzle has one trick you can find with what you already know: line the examples up, spot the rule, then check it against every example before you answer. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/2/) — Picture Ming's big sister holding up a card: «Today is xīngqīsì. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/3/) — What is hòutiān?» Thursday is day four, two days on is day six, so the answer is Saturday, xīngqīliù. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/4/) — Watch the traps: Sunday has no number, 12 is shí'èr and not èrshí, and when Ming groans «I've told you a million times» he means many times, not a number to count. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/5/) — Mandarin numbers are built from parts: shísān is ten-three (13), sānshí is three-tens (30), sānshísān is 33, and jiǔshíjiǔ is 99. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/6/) — A zero inside a hundred is said as líng: yìbǎi líng bā is 108, while yìbǎi bāshí is 180. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/9/) — Before a falling tone bù turns into rising bú (bú shì, bú yào, bú duì); before the other tones it stays bù (bù hǎo, bù xíng, bù chī). - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/10/) — yī changes too: yí before a falling tone (yí ge, yíxià), yì before the other tones (yì tiān, yìbǎi), and plain yī when counting or at the end of a number like shíyī. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/12/) — Some pairs of words differ only by tone: mǎi (buy) and mài (sell), wèn (ask) and wěn (kiss), tāng (soup) and táng (sweets), māo (cat) and máo (fur). - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/13/) — Numbers are lucky or unlucky by sound: bā (8) rhymes with fā (get rich), jiǔ (9) sounds like long-lasting, liù (6) like going smoothly, and sì (4) sounds like sǐ (to die). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/14/) — The twelve zodiac animals go round in order, Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, so the same animal comes back every 12 years. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/15/) — The Year of the Horse began at Chinese New Year on 17 February 2026, so a baby born on 10 January 2026 still belongs to the Snake year before it. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/16/) — Dates go month first, then day: èr yuè shí hào is 10 February and shí yuè èr hào is 2 October. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/31-olympiad-tone-and-number-puzzles/17/) — For two of something you say liǎng (liǎng ge rén), but inside bigger numbers èr stays: shí'èr ge rén is 12 people and èrshí ge rén is 20 people. - ← previous: [Street chatter: wow, really?, cool!](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/30-street-chatter-wow-really-cool/) - next →: [Olympiad: measure words and characters as pictures ★★★](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/32-olympiad-measure-words-and-picture-characters/) - ↑ back to [Chinese street](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chinese-street/)