#5201314

5201314 💜❤

"Tetraphobia" is the fear of the number 4. In various countries in East Asia, the number 4 is often considered unlucky, particularily for it's association with death. For this reason, a 4th floor in a multi-story building is often omitted in the way that in many western buildings there aren't any 13th floors. Other numbers which contain the numeral 4 are also avoided some such extent, such as 14, 24 and 42. This can even affect business in some East Asian countries - often, addresses, phone numbers, prices and company names containing the number four in it are avoided.

"4" in Japan

Note: a "homophone" is a word with the same pronunciation as another word, but they have different meanings.

In Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced as “shi" (し) which means death. Other numbers associated with the number 4 are often avoided, such as the number 43 is a homophone of 死産 (shizan) which means stillbirth. For this reason, rooms number 43 are avoided in Japanese hospital. Similar combinations include the word for 49 is a homophone for 死苦 (shiku, "a painful death) and 42, homophone for 死に (shini, "to death). In Japanese giftgiving customs, objects are never handed out in sets of 4 - usually either 3 or 5.

"4" in Korea

In Korea, the word 사 means both "four" and "death". A consequence of this is that South Korea's national railway company KoRail has skipped the train number "4444"

"4" in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Note: any numbers in the phonetic transcriptions for any of the non-English words in this paragraph are representative of the tone of the syllable.

In Mandarin, the word for number four (四, pronounced sì) is a homophone (save for the tones) with the word for death (死, pronounced sǐ). The same applies to Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka and Taiwanese, in which the word for 4 (四) is pronounced as sei, sy2, si3 and sù respectively while the words for death (死) are pronounced as séi, sy2, si4 and sú.

Connotated combinations of numbers in which 4 appears

514 has negative connotations as 五一四 (5-1-4, wǔ yī sì) sounds similar to the words for "I want to die" (我要死) in Mandarin (wǒ yào sǐ).

5354 has negative connotations in Hong Kong as 五三五四 (5-3-5-4, ńg sāam ńg sei) sounds similar to Cantonese 吾生吾死 (m̀ sāang m̀ séi), which translates to "not alive, not dead", meaning a miserable state in which one is practically dead.

5201314 however, has positive connotations in mainland China as 五二零一三一四 (5-2-0-1-3-1-4, wǔ èr líng yī sān yī sì) sounds similar to 我爱你一生一世 (wǒ ài nǐ yī shēng yī shì) meaning "I love you a lifetime".

Numbers

1314: "For ever", usually preceded by a phrase such as "I love you" or whatever. 1314 (pinyin: yīsānyīsì) represents 一生一世 "one life, one world" (pinyin: yīshēng yīshì).

233: “laughter" 233 (pinyin:èr sān sān） represents 哈哈哈 （pinyin: hā hā hā).

4242: "Yes" or "It is", 4242 (pinyin: sìèr sì'èr) represents 是啊是啊 (pinyin: shì’a shì’a).

520: "I love you". 520 (pinyin: wǔ'èrlíng) represents 我爱你 (pinyin: wǒ ài nǐ).

555: "(crying)". 555 (pinyin: wǔwǔwǔ) represents 呜呜呜 (pinyin: wūwūwū) the sound of tearful crying.

666: "doing something really well" 666 (pinyin: liùliùliù) represents 溜溜溜 (pinyin:liùliùliù ).

7451 or 7456: "I'm angry". 7451 (pinyin: qīsìwǔyī) or 7456 (pinyin: qīsìwǔliù) represents 气死我了 (pinyin: qìsǐ wǒle)

748: "Go and die!", 748 (pinyin: qīsìbā)：represents 去死吧 (pinyin: qùsǐba), the equivalent of "Get lost!", or "Go to hell!"

88: "Bye bye" (goodbye). 88 (pinyin: bābā) represents "bye bye"