合计

• Pinyin: hé jì
• Hanzi breakdown: 合 = 亼 + 口 — to bring together; 计 = 讠(speech radical) + 十 (ten) — to count/plan

Meaning

To total up; to add up to a combined sum. Informally also: to consult or deliberate together as a group.

Has two distinct usages: (1) the mathematical or accounting sense of aggregating figures to arrive at a total amount; (2) the colloquial spoken Chinese sense of conferring with others to reach a collective decision. The financial sense is more widely used and formal. The deliberation sense is more colloquial and common in northern China.

Examples

1. 将所有项目的费用合计之后，总开销超出了预算的百分之三十。 After totaling up the costs for all the items, the overall expenses exceeded the budget by thirty percent.
2. 大家合计了一下，决定将会议时间推迟到下周五举行。 After talking it over, everyone decided to postpone the meeting until next Friday.
3. 这次采购合计花费了近五十万元，财务部要求提供详细明细。 This purchase totaled nearly 500,000 yuan, and the finance department requires a detailed itemized breakdown.

Usage Guide

Context: accounting, finance, meetings, planning

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 三个月的运营成本合计为十二万元，请财务部门确认数字是否准确。(Total operating costs for the three months amount to 120,000 yuan — please ask the finance department to verify the figures.)
• 我们先合计一下各自的时间安排，再确定开会的具体时间。(Let's first consult our individual schedules before settling on a specific meeting time.)

Don't Say

• 合计 as a replacement for 共计 in formal statistical reports — 共计 is preferred in official statistics; 合计 is more common in everyday accounting contexts

Origin & History

合 (together; aggregate; combine) + 计 (to count; to calculate; to plan)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal