Structure of numbers

Revision as of 07:29, 6 July 2015 by Mblood (talk | contribs)

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

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

Books

Retrieved from "https://resources.allsetlearning.com/gramwiki/?title=Structure_of_numbers&oldid=23558"