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Ms. East

Why does 520 mean "I love you"?

Updated: May 21, 2020

Today is May 20th. You might have seen many online posts about “I love you” or “我爱你”. If you are confused, I’m here to help.


First, let’s look at the pinyin for some basic numbers in Chinese Mandarin. From zero to five, they are:

Next, let’s look at the Pinyin for "I love you" which is “wǒ ài nǐ” or “wǒ ài nín”. Did you notice some similarities? If not, that’s OK. It’s easier to notice the similarities if you are familiar with their pronunciation. Because the Pinyin for “five, two, zero” is “wǔ, èr, líng” which sounds like “wǒ ài nín”, some people started to use these numbers to symbolize “I love you” in Chinese Mandarin. Guess what does "five, two, one" mean? It is also "I love you", which is "我爱你”(Pinyin: wǒ ài nǐ ) in Chinese Mandarin. Because number "1" (Pinyin: yī ) sounds like"你“(Pinyin:nǐ ) which also means "you".


There are more examples of numbers that stand for certain meanings of words in Chinese Mandarin. If you are interested to learn more about this fun function of numbers, please feel free to contact me and schedule a one-to-one lesson.


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