Structure of numbers
| Digit | Chinese | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 一 | one |
| 10 | 十 | ten |
| 13 | 一三 | thirteen |
| 20 | 二十 | twenty |
| 21 | 二十一 | twenty-one |
| 99 | 九十九 | ninety-nine |
| 100 | 一百 | one hundred |
| 101 | 一百零一 | one hundred and one |
Chinese handles numbers in a slightly different way to English. The differences occur around different units in the two languages, and the way zeros are used when reading out numbers in Chinese.
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 - ten thousand
- 亿 - hundred million
万 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, it's easier to break numbers up into groups of four in Mandarin. For example:
- 12000
Would be split into 12 000 in English (chunks of three digits), and the English reading "twelve thousand" would become more obvious. Split it the Chinese way, 1 2000, and the Chinese reading "一万两千" (one wan and two thousand) becomes more obvious.
More examples:
| English split | English reading | Chinese split | Chinese |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 000 | ten thousand | 1 0000 | 一万 |
| 13 200 | thirteen thousand two hundred | 1 3200 | 一万三千两百 |
| 56 700 | fifty six thousand seven hundred | 5 6700 | 五万六千七百 |
Zeros
| 亿 | 千万 | 百万 | 十万 | 万 | 千 | 百 | 十 | 一 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One hundred millions | Ten millions | Millions | Hundred thousands | Ten thousands | Thousands | Hundreds | Tens | Ones |
Sources and further reading
- East Asia Student: Mandarin numbers grammar summary
