How to say 'change' or refer to 'coins' in Mandarin
My Chinese bro Wang Meng taught me to say "change" at a Chinese restaurant in Milan because I needed to ask for change and I don't speak Italian.
He said you can take the word for "hard" (which also means "stiff" and "firm"), which is 硬, pronounced ying4.
Next, add the word for money, which is 币, pronounced bi4.
Together, you get "hard money" or "firm money", which I guess makes sense as the way to say "change".
But then Wang Meng said "But Jonah, in Chinese we seldom use this word." And I replied "Wang Meng, in English we seldom use the word seldom." Ha ha. I cracked myself up with that one!
When I recovered, Wang Meng taught me that the word he uses for "change" is 钢币.
The first word here is 钢, pronounced gang1, which means steel. Makes sense so far.
The second word is the same word bi4 (币) from the seldom- (ha ha) used "stiff money". But...... wait for it...... when you say "change" you pronounce the word 币 as ber4, which sounds like "burrrrrr", as in "burrrrr, I'm cold".
So the word for "change" is 钢币 = gang1burrrrr4.
(Update: It was pointed out in the comments (thanks Dezmond) that it's probably not the word 币 changing pronunciation, but just the addition of an 儿, which is the "errrr" sound that Beijing folks like to add to words. So it's probably 钢币儿 = steel + currency + errrr.)
(This is probably just how Beijing folks pronounce it... I assume in Shanghai they pronounce it gang1bi4. I wonder if my friends over at The Blog on Shanghai and China can give me a definitive answer on that one.)