it is true that the number 4 in Chinese/Japanese is the same word as death?

Question

Not sure if it's Chinese or Japanase....

Answer 1

Sorry, I can’t help laughing at the answers above but not out of mockery. In Chinese, the number 4 and the word death are definitely different; they sound alike though. However, Chinese speakers can normally pronoun them correctly and the 2 words are easily understood, no confusion at all.

Due to superstition, most Chinese will prefer not to associate with the number 4 because they still sound similar to death. Interestingly, the Rolls Royce of my boss has the single digit 4. So much for superstition!

Answer 2

well...most of the people who have answered have been wrong so far. They've explained how to pronounce it differently, but most of them didn't say that they are not the same word because they are not written the same. Basically, the number four in Chinese and the word death are homophones. Lots of Chinese will not associate any areas of life with the number 4 because of the high superstition involving this number. For example, in hospitals, they will not have a 4th floor and instead have an "F". Other Chinese numbers that are homophones are eight, which is extremely lucky in China because it is the homophone for "luck". And the number 13 is often regarded as a bad luck number here, but it is a very lucky number in China because it is a homophone for "Sure to give birth" and the number 14 is the worst number of all because it's a homophone for "sure to die"

Answer 3

For Cantonese Chinese it's basicly the same word but with a different entonation. Words in Cantonese can have up to 4 different entonations which can give you 4 different meanings. I thnk for Mandarin Chinese it also has the same word as death.
That's why for Chinese culture number four is considered of bad luck. If your phoen number or your license plate has a 444 it's baaaad. And believe it or not 666 would actually be a lucky number.

Answer 4

Can't speak for Japanese, but in Mandarin the number four is prounounced 'si' with a 4th tone, meaning it's starts higher and falls, and the worth for death, 'si' is the 3rd tone, meaning it starts higher, dips low, and rises again.

In other words, the tone you say it in changes the meaning of the word, and this is true for all Chinese words, both Mando and Canto.

In the written language, the characters for 4 and death are completely different as well. Go to this site, type word "si4' in the "Pinyin Look-up", hit "Search by Pinyin" and see the character for 4, then do the same for 'si3' and you'll see what I mean. You may have to scroll down a bit to find the right character but the meanings are given in English so it won't be hard to find.

Answer 5

No, no, no, no, no! Who told you that? They only sound alike, not the same. I'm sure it's the same case with Japanese. I've read it up before. We Chinese can tell the difference easily, but we do tend to avoid the number, so in shopping malls or buildings, we'd skip the fourth floor. We have the third floor, then it goes up directly to the fifth floor, there wouldn't be any fourth floor. Well, some do, but it's really uncommon that they do.

Answer 6

It is chinese. It is not the same word, but same sound with a different tone. Many hospitals will not have a fourth floor - just like they do not have a 13th floor here

Answer 7

It is Chinese, but the pronunciation is not exactly the same. (Xiayu has explained the differences already.)

However, it is also the reason why there are no number four in wards and fourth floors in hospitals in Taiwan.

Answer 8

In Chinese, death is pronounced "shi", which has the same pronounciation of number 4 "shi"

In Japanese, death is pronounced "shi" or "shinu", which
has the same pronounciation of the word 4 ( shi or yon)

The word "death" has the same kanji in both Chinese and Japanese.

Answer 9

in chinese it's the same

Answer 10

chinese...
in chinese, 4 and die/death/... sound alike, so 4 represents die/death/... in chinese, cantonese too.