Example sentences
zhè这běn本shū书yì一bǎi百kuài块。
This book is 100 yuan.
wǒ我men们xué学xiào校yǒu有wǔ五bǎi百rén人。
Our school has 500 people.
The story behind the character
百
一 on top, 白 underneath giving the sound. Xu Shen was blunt about the meaning: 百, 十百也. Ten tens. The 白 here is a phonetic guest, not the character for white. A hundred is what you get when ten multiplies by ten, and Chinese writes it with one stroke laid over a sound-alike. You have already met it in 一百 and in every price tag you will ever read.
Related words
Practise the numbers with audio →Every number from 1 to 100, each digit tap-to-hear, plus the tone changes that trip people up.