三下五除二

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Chinese

		three	under; next; lower under; next; lower; below; underneath; down(wards); to go down; latter	five	remove; do away with; wipe out remove; do away with; wipe out; divide; except	two
simp. and trad. (三下五除二)		三	下	五	除	二
Literally: “three, down five, take away two”.

Etymology

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
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A mnemonic device to aid with adding 3 to 2, 3 and 4 in base 10 (also 7, 8 and 9 in base 16) on an abacus.

For example, to calculate $3+3$ :

Start with three beads on the bottom (each lower bead is equal to 1).
Move one of the top beads down (each top bead is equal to 5).
Take away two of the beads from the bottom.
This leaves you with one top bead (5) and one bottom bead (1), for a total of 6.

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): sān xià wǔ chú èr

(Zhuyin): ㄙㄢㄒㄧㄚˋ ㄨˇ ㄔㄨˊ ㄦˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): saam¹ haa⁶ ng⁵ ceoi⁴ ji⁶

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: sān xià wǔ chú èr
  - Zhuyin: ㄙㄢㄒㄧㄚˋ ㄨˇ ㄔㄨˊ ㄦˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: san sià wǔ chú èr
  - Wade–Giles: san¹ hsia⁴ wu³ chʻu² êrh⁴
  - Yale: sān syà wǔ chú èr
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: san shiah wuu chwu ell
  - Palladius: сань ся у чу эр (sanʹ sja u ču er)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /sän⁵⁵ ɕi̯ä⁵¹ u²¹⁴⁻²¹ ʈ͡ʂʰu³⁵ ˀɤɻ⁵¹/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: saam¹ haa⁶ ng⁵ ceoi⁴ ji⁶
  - Yale: sāam hah ńgh chèuih yih
  - Cantonese Pinyin: saam¹ haa⁶ ng⁵ tsoey⁴ ji⁶
  - Guangdong Romanization: sam¹ ha⁶ ng⁵ cêu⁴ yi⁶
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /saːm⁵⁵ haː²² ŋ̍¹³ t͡sʰɵy̯²¹ jiː²²/

Idiom

三下五除二

(figurative) (doing things) in an instant; in the blink of an eye; quickly and easily
- 一會兒一個小男孩走進來，很嫻熟地捏起蛇三下五除二就將蛇頭砍掉了
  一会儿一个小男孩走进来，很娴熟地捏起蛇三下五除二就将蛇头砍掉了
  From: 2005: anon, 五步毒蛇与含笑半步颠
  yīhuìr yīge xiǎo nánhái zǒu jìnlái, hěn xiánshú de niē qǐ shé sān xià wǔ chú èr jiù jiāng shé tóu kǎn diào le
  After a while, a little boy came in and expertly took hold of the snake. In the blink of an eye, he had cut off its head

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