Structure of numbers

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.

One to one hundred

Structure for the first ten

These are handled the same way as in English, nothing tricky there.

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
1	一	yī	one
2	二	èr	two
3	三	sān	three
4	四	sì	four
5	五	wǔ	five
6	六	liù	six
7	七	qī	seven
8	八	bā	eight
9	九	jiǔ	nine
10	十	shí	ten

Structure for teens

十 + x

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).

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
11	十一	shíyī	eleven
12	十二	shí'èr	twelve
13	十三	shísān	thirteen
14	十四	shísì	fourteen
15	十五	shíwǔ	fifteen
16	十六	shíliù	sixteen
17	十七	shíqī	seventeen
18	十八	shíbā	eighteen
19	十九	shíjiǔ	nineteen

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

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
20	二十	èrshí	twenty
23	二十三	èrshísān	twenty three
30	三十	sānshí	thirty
39	三十九	sānshíjiǔ	thirty nine
40	四十	sìshí	forty
44	四十四	sìshísì	forty four
50	五十	wǔshí	fifty
73	七十三	qīshísān	seventy three
82	八十二	bāshíèr	eighty two
97	九十七	jiǔshíqī	ninety seven

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

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
101	一百零一	yībǎi líng yī	one hundred and one
202	二百零二	èrbǎi líng èr	two hundred and two
206	二百零六	èrbǎi líng liù	two hundred and six
305	三百零五	sānbǎi líng wǔ	three hundred and five
407	四百零七	sìbǎi líng qī	four hundred and seven
504	五百零四	wǔbǎi líng sì	five hundred and four
602	六百零二	liùbǎi líng èr	six hundred and two
701	七百零一	qībǎi líng yī	seven hundred and one
803	八百零三	bābǎi líng sān	eight hundred and three
909	九百零九	jiǔbǎi líng jiǔ	nine hundred and nine

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

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
110	一百一	yībǎi yī	one hundred and one
111	一百一十一	yībǎi yīshí yī	two hundred and two
210	二百一十	èrbǎi yīshí	two hundred and six
350	三百五十	sānbǎi wǔshí	three hundred and five
460	四百六十	sìbǎi liùshí	four hundred and seven
550	五百五十	wǔbǎi wǔshí	five hundred and four
680	六百八	liùbǎi bā	six hundred and two
777	七百七十七	qībǎi qīshí qī	seven hundred and one
870	八百七	bābǎi qī	eight hundred and three
990	九百九	jiǔbǎi jiǔ	nine hundred and nine

Structure for 111

x + 百 + y + 十 + z

Examples

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
111	一百一十一	yībǎi yīshí yī	one hundred and eleven
123	一百二十 三	yībǎi èrshí sān	one hundred and twenty three
222	二百二十二	èrbǎi èrshí èr	two hundred and twenty two
249	二百四十九	èrbǎi sìshí jiǔ	two hundred and forty nine
365	三百六十五	sānbǎi liùshí wǔ	three hundred and sixty five
451	四百五十一	sìbǎi wǔshí yī	four hundred and fifty one
635	六百三十五	liùbǎi sānshí wǔ	six hundred and thirty five
832	八百三十二	bābǎi sānshí èr	eight hundred and thirty two
915	九百一十二	jiǔbǎi yīshí wǔ	nine hundred and fifteen
999	九百九十九	jiǔbǎi jiǔshí jiǔ	nine hundred and ninety nine

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

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
1001	一千零一	yīqiān líng yī	one thousand and one
1010	一千零一十	yīqiān líng yīshí	one thousand and ten
1019	一千零一十九	yīqiān líng yīshí jiǔ	one thousand and nineteen
1020	一千零二十	yīqiān líng èrshí	one thousand and twenty
1100	一千一百	yīqiān yībǎi	one thousand one hundred
1101	一千一百零一	yīqiān yībǎi líng yī	one thousand one hundred and one
1110	一千一百一十	yīqiān yībǎi yīshí	one thousand one hundred and ten
1234	一千二百三十四	yīqiān èrbǎi sānshí sì	one thousand two hundred and thirty four
8765	八千七百六十五	bāqiān qībǎi liùshí wǔ	eight thousand seven hundred and sixty five
9999	九千九百九十九	jiǔqiān jiǔbǎi jiǔshí jiǔ	nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine

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:

Digit	Chinese	Pinyin	English
12,000	一万二	yīwàn èr	twelve thousand

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.

Separating numbers

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

• Big Numbers
• Structure of dates
• Structure of days of the week
• Measure words
• "Er" and "liang"

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