Structure of numbers

Chinese handles numbers in a very consistent and logical way. The system does have some tricky parts, but once you've learnt it you will know how to read out any number in Chinese.

One to one hundred

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

Structure for teens

Eleven, twelve and the teens are handled very logically - they're formed with 十 followed by a digit 一 to 九. So eleven is 十一, twelve is 十二, thirteen is 十三 and so on up to nineteen, which is 十九.

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, thirty is 三十 and so on. Units in the tens are simply added on the end. So twenty one is 二十一, thirty four is 三十四 and ninety nine is 九十九. 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, 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

Structure for 110

x + 百 + y + 十

Here, If you just want to express a number, we can also say "x + 百 + y" briefly. For example: 250 is "二百五". But if you want to put a measure word after the number, you have to say "x + 百 + y + 十".

examples

  • 一百十一110
  • 一百一110
  • 二百一十210
  • 二百一十个人210 persons
  • 三百五十350
  • 九百九十990

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

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 once 零.

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

Mandarin numbers examples
Digit Chinese English
1 一 one
10 十 ten
13 十三 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
110 一百一十 one hundred and ten
119 一百一十九 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 - 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:

  • 一 万 二 12,000
  • 一 万 两 千 个 人12,000 persons

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 logical.

More examples:

Separating numbers
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

Mandarin number structure

Mandarin number structure
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

See also

Sources and further reading

Websites

Books

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