Big numbers in Chinese

The manner in which large numbers are broken down in Chinese is a little different from English. Unlike in English, where large numbers are broken down by the number of thousands they have, Chinese forms numbers between 10,000 and 100,000,000 based off of how many tens of thousands they have (with another set of rules for numbers 100,000,000 onwards that will be explained afterward). While the structure can be difficult to grasp for some learners, there are some easy ways to remember how to form these big numbers.

Ten Thousand - 万

The number "ten thousand" is expressed by the character 万 (wàn). For example, the number 11,000 would not be written as "十一千 (shíyīqiān)," but rather as "一万一千 (yī wàn yīqiān)." A simple way to remember how to write out numbers 10,000 through 99,999 is that in Chinese, the comma is moved one digit to the left. Using the previous example, 11,000 would be written out in tens of thousands as 1,1000, with 万 (wàn) replacing the comma when written out in Chinese.

One Hundred Million - 亿

After 99,999,999, there is yet another classifier, 亿 (yì), which is used to express one hundred million. A number like 1,101,110,000 would be written out as "十一亿一百一十一万 (shíyī yì yībǎi yīshíyī wàn)." Again, an easier way to translate between the two methods is to write the number out in English, move the comma one digit to the left, and inserting the appropriate character in their respective places for the commas.

A Shortcut

One more simple way to remember how to correctly write out large numbers is to pick one or two numbers and just memorize them. One million, for example, is 一百万 (yībǎi wàn). If you can memorize that, then going to 一千万 (yīqiān wàn) is way easier and faster, since you don't have to count all those zeroes.

The recommended shortcuts are:

• 一百万 (frequently a useful number to know)yībǎi wàn1 million
• 十三亿 (this just happens to be the population of China)shísān yì1.3 billion

Examples

Here are some more examples showing how this is all broken down:

• 52,152 = 五 万 二 千 一 百 五 十 二 wǔ wàn èrqiān yībǎi wǔshí èr
• 854,320 = 八十 五 万 四 千 三 百 二 十 bāshí wǔ wàn sìqiān sānbǎi èrshí
• 7890,298= 七 百 八 十 九 万 零 二 百 九 十 八 qībǎi bāshí jiǔwàn líng èrbǎi jiǔshí bā
• 27,214,896 = 二 千 七 百 二 十 一 万 四 千 八 百 九 十 六èrqiān qībǎi èrshí yīwàn sìqiān bābǎi jiǔshí liù
• 414,294,182 = 四 亿 一 千 四 百 二 十 九 万 四 千 一 百 八 十 二 sì yì yīqiān sìbǎi èrshí jiǔ wàn sìqiān yībǎi bāshí èr

See also

• Structure of numbers

Sources and further reading

Books

• Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide (pp. 30-31)
• 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners) (pp. 64-65)