Zeros in numbers
In Chinese, one hundred is 一百. Simple enough. One hundred and one, though, is read out as if reading the digits 101: 一百零一, "One hundred zero one." Chinese uses zero, 零, in the way English uses and to separate out units in numbers. So English says "one hundred and one" while Chinese says "one hundred zero one."
In English, and is only said once per gap, and this is the same with 零 in Chinese. So one thousand and one, 1001, is read out 一千零一 ("one thousand zero one"). Zeros on the end of numbers are not read out, as in English. 1100 is 一千一百.
Unlike and in English, if there is more than one such "gap" in a number, a zero must be read out for each gap. The number 10101 is read out 一万零一白零一.
Another difference is that English inserts an and in the number 110 - "one hundred and ten." Because there is no zero gap, Chinese simply says 一百一十. Note that informally, the ten here is often omitted and people say 一百一. Watch out for this, as it could easily be mistaken for 101. The difference:
- 101: 一百零一
- 110: 一百一
