Quick question for someone that knows Chinese

[rzpvile]

Someone has just told me that 1858 means "i want to be rich and i'll be rich" in chinese. Can anyone that speaks chinese varify this it means something to me since I own that number in the .com. Thanks a ton!

To be more specific he told me:

8 may means rich
5 can means me
1 can means want

 

[Ronald Regging]

I dont know chinese but from some quick research it's interesting to note that the chinese only use the arabic numeral representations in mathematics... In writing of numbers they use chinese characters, of which there seems to be 5 different versions. It also states that the chinese numbers are combined with other chinese characters to form words...

I think it's a big stretch to assume that a specific digit would translate to a specific word... Numbers are after all used to count things... There are examples where numbers take on word associations through common usage, such as 411 = information, 911 = emergency... but even in English we don't say that the number 6 also means grapefruit... And given that the Chinese don't seem to even use arabic numerals in writing, aside from mathematics, I doubt that 1858 has any meaning in Chinese.

I hope someone who knows chinese does post here, because now I am curious

 

[fab]

It's something related to the pronounciation of the numbers in pinyin (putonghua or mandarin). People like to vary the pronounciation slightly to give meaning. Like 520 = I love you, 886 = Bye Bye lo. 1858 may be intrepreted in that way, but I would say it's not so intuitive.

Some examples here
http://www.yellowbridge.com/language/pagercodes.html

 

[Zilla]

Someone has just told me that 1858 means "i want to be rich and i'll be rich" in chinese. Can anyone that speaks chinese varify this it means something to me since I own that number in the .com. Thanks a ton!

To be more specific he told me:

8 may means rich
5 can means me
1 can means want

Correct, u can understand the 1858 in that way, the the info is correct in most case...some more interesting example

520 means "I love u" while 2 means love in this case, 0 means you
1858 means, want be rich, I be rich.
51job means I want a job (51job.com is a #1 job site in china)

most case, number have meaning is because the pronoucation, so, one number may can rep different meaning in different context....example again

9420 means do love u for most people.
but 748, means go to die! while u hate someone, u can said 748..
131420 means love u forever

hope this info help, insteand make u more confuse....lol

 

[Ronald Regging]

Alright then, I stand corrected I appreciate the clarification as well, because I found this an interesting topic. Like I said, I did some simple research, which lead me to some theories, but not speaking chinese or being from China, it's obviously impossible for me to understand the nuances of the language. Which is exactly the reason I don't invest in foreign domain names.

 

[primacomputer]

Yes, certain numbers have a meaning or meaning in Chinese. This is based on what the pronunciation of the number sounds like. This can be a problem because there are so many different Chinese dialects. The number 5 (wu) certain does sound like “me” (wo) in the widest used dialect Unfortunately it sounds like "nothing" in the dialect used in the South where the vast majority of the countrys wealth is.

I've even seen newagers claiming that the number 4 has good meanings, where in reality if means “death” in every major dialect in China. It's also worth mentioning that in the South (especially in HK) many numbers have a nasty sexual meaning in addition to the life/money meaning.


One has to be very careful when choosing numbers based on their Chinese meaning. If you piece numbers together with out any underlying knowledge of Chinese you are going to end up with a lot of names you can only sell to newbies. This in itself is not necessarily unprofitable. One could probably make a pretty penny off registering hundreds of these names and selling them to amateur domainers on the premise that they “mean something” in Chinese.

Your best bet with numbers would be to check numbers that are registered in the various Chinese ccTLDs and compare those against .com, and .net. For example if 12345.cn is registered not available in .com grabbing the .com would be a good idea. The converse would be true if those were good Chinese numbers.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

I noticed that you listed this name under "sold" in the thread stickied at the top of this forum.
Do you have any idea if the buyer plans to use it in the context as described above? (meaning based on phonetic pronunciation, etc.)
-Allan :gl: