No. 1 in Chinese
元
"元" means "origin," "beginning," or refers to the Chinese currency unit "Yuan."
In a sentence
每本书售价20元。
Each book costs 20 yuan.
Here, "元" serves as a currency unit, equivalent to "yuan" in English, representing the standard unit of money in China.
在测试中，他得了满分，高于满分的那一元。
In the test, he got a perfect score, exceeding the main point by one unit.
Here, "元" is used metaphorically to represent a unit of measure or reference point in a non-monetary context.
这个项目的第一元是市场调查。
The first fundamental is market research for this project.
Here, "元" signifies an essential or basic element of a structure or system, showing its versatility when used metaphorically.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “元” in actual Chinese podcasts.
Find “元” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Chinese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 中文, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Chinese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).