Difference between revisions of "Structure of numbers"
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Revision as of 03:12, 18 June 2015
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Keywords
Chinese handles numbers in a very consistent and logical way. The system does have any tricky parts, but once you've learned it, you will know how to read out any number in Chinese.
Contents
One to one hundred
Structure for the first ten
These are handled the same way as in English, nothing tricky there.
x
Examples
- 一 1
- 二 2
- 三 3
- 四 4
- 五 5
- 六 6
- 七 7
- 八 8
- 九 9
- 十 10
Structure for teens
Eleven, twelve and the teens are handled very logically. They're formed with 十 (shí) followed by a digit 一 (yī) to 九 (jiǔ). So eleven is 十一 (shíyī), twelve is 十二 (shí'èr), thirteen is 十三 (shísān), and so on up to nineteen, which is 十九 (shíjiǔ).
十 x
Examples
- 十 一11
- 十 二12
- 十 三13
- 十 四14
- 十 五15
- 十 六16
- 十 七17
- 十 八18
- 十 九19
Structure for tens
All the tens are also formed very logically. Twenty is 二十 (èrshí), thirty is 三十 (sānshí), and so on. Units in the tens are simply added on the end. So twenty one is 二十一 (èrshíyī), thirty four is 三十四 (sānshísì), and ninety-nine is 九十九 (jiǔshíjiǔ). All very logical and consistent.
x + 十
x + 十 + y
Examples
- 二 十20
- 三 十30
- 四 十40
- 五 十50
- 二 十 三23
- 三 十 九39
- 四 十 四44
- 九 十 七97
- 八 十 二82
- 七 十 三73
And one hundred is simply 一百 (yībǎi), as in English. So you now know how to count to one hundred in Chinese.
After one hundred
Structure for 101
Note: when there's a "0" in the middle of a number, you read it as 零 (líng), and don't put a number after it.
x + 百 + 零 + y
Examples
- 一 百 零 一 101
- 三 百 零 五305
- 九 百 零 九909
- 两 百 零 六206
- 四 百 零 七407
- 八 百 零 三803
- 五 百 零 四504
- 六 百 零 二602
- 七 百 零 一701
- 两 百 零 二202
Structure for 110
x + 百 + y
The only tricky thing here is that sometimes the number 250, or "二百", is pronounced "èrbǎi," and sometimes it's pronounced "liǎngbǎi." Both are OK.
Examples
- 一 百 一 十 一111
- 一 百 一110
- 二 百 一 十210
- 二 百 一 十 个 人210 people
- 三 百 五 十350
- 九 百 九 十990
- 八 百 七870
- 五 百 五550
- 四 百 六460
- 六 百 八 十680
Structure for 111
x + 百 + y + 十 + z
Examples
- 一 百 一 十 一111
- 九 百 一 十 五915
- 六 百 三 十 五635
- 一 百 二 十 三123
- 两 百 四 十 九249
- 三 百 六 十 五365
- 九 百 九 十 九999
- 两 百 二 十 二222
- 八 百 三 十 二832
- 四 百 五 十 一451
After one thousand
千 (qiān) means "thousand" in Chinese. The rules are similar with ”hundred." Just note that no matter how many zeros between the number, you just say 零 (líng) once.
Examples
- 一 千 零 一1001
- 一 千 零 一 十1010
- 一 千 零 一 十 一1011
- 一 千 零 一 十 九1019
- 一 千 零 二 十1020
- 一 千 一 百1100
- 一 千 一 百 零 一1101
- 一 千 一 百 一 十1110
- 九 千 九 百 九 十 九9999
More examples
Digit | Chinese | Pinyin | English |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 一 | yī | one |
10 | 十 | shí | ten |
13 | 十三 | shísān | thirteen |
20 | 二十 | èrshí | twenty |
21 | 二十一 | èrshíyī | twenty-one |
99 | 九十九 | jiǔshíjiǔ | ninety-nine |
100 | 一百 | yībǎi | one hundred |
101 | 一百零一 | yībǎi líng yī | one hundred and one |
110 | 一百一十 | yībǎi yīshí | one hundred and ten |
119 | 一百一十九 | yībǎi yīshíjiǔ | one hundred and nineteen |
Different units
Mandarin has two units that English doesn't have (or at least, it has unique words for these units whilst English describes them with combinations of other units). These are:
- 万 - wàn - ten thousand
- 亿 - yì - hundred million
万 (wàn) comes up the most often and is the largest stumbling block for most people learning Mandarin numbers. In English, numbers are usually broken up into chunks of three digits. Because of 万 (wàn), it's easier to break numbers up into groups of four in Mandarin. For example:
- 一 万 二12,000
In English, we split "twelve thousand" numerically into "12,000" (chunks of three digits). Split it the Chinese way, "1,2000," and the Chinese reading "一万两千" (one wan and two "thousand" = yī wàn liǎng qiān) becomes more logical.
More examples:
English split | English reading | Chinese split | Chinese | Pinyin |
---|---|---|---|---|
10 000 | ten thousand | 1 0000 | 一万 | yī wàn |
13 200 | thirteen thousand two hundred | 1 3200 | 一万三千两百 | yī wàn sānqiān liǎng bǎi |
56 700 | fifty six thousand seven hundred | 5 6700 | 五万六千七百 | wǔ wàn liùqiān qībǎi |
Mandarin number structure
亿 | 千万 | 百万 | 十万 | 万 | 千 | 百 | 十 | 一 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
yì | qiān wàn | bǎi wàn | shí wàn | wàn | qiān | bǎi | shí | yī |
One hundred millions | Ten millions | Millions | Hundred thousands | Ten thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
See also
Sources and further reading
Websites
- East Asia Student: Mandarin numbers grammar summary
Books
- Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 70-1) →buy
- Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 2 (3rd ed) (pp. 273-4) →buy
- Chinese: An Essential Grammar, Second Edition (pp. 15-6) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (p. 104) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (p. 122) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 2 (新实用汉语课本2) (p. 18) →buy
- New Practical Chinese Reader 3 (新实用汉语课本3) (p. 81) →buy