qǐ mǎ
elementary; rudimentary
起码要学到大学毕业。
qǐ mǎ yào xué dào dà xué bì yè.
At least you should study until you graduate from college.
起码要学到高中毕业。
qǐ mǎ yào xué dào gāo zhōng bì yè.
At least you should study until you graduate from high school.
起码要学到初中毕业。
qǐ mǎ yào xué dào chū zhōng bì yè.
At least you should study until you graduate from junior high school.
至多 (zhì duō)
at most
最多 (zuì duō)
at most
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The Chinese word 起码 (qǐ mǎ) is a compound word consisting of two characters: 起 (qǐ) and 码 (mǎ). The character 起 originally meant "to rise" or "to begin", and in modern Chinese it is often used as a verb meaning "to start" or "to get up". The character 码 originally meant "a horse", but in modern Chinese it is often used as a noun meaning "a code" or "a standard". When these two characters are combined, they form the word 起码, which literally means "the beginning of a code" or "the starting point of a standard". In modern Chinese, 起码 is used as an adverb meaning "at least" or "as a minimum". For example, the sentence "我有起码十本书" means "I have at least ten books".
