Structure of numbers

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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
  • 两 百 零 六206
  • 四 百 零 七407
  • 八 百 零 三803
  • 五 百 零 四504
  • 六 百 零 二602
  • 七 百 零 一701
  • 两 百 零 二202

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 一 十 一111
  • 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
  • 八 百 七870
  • 五 百 五550
  • 四 百 六460
  • 六 百 八 十680

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
  • 三 百 六 十 五365
  • 九 百 九 十 九999
  • 两 百 二 十 二222
  • 八 百 三 十 二832
  • 四 百 五 十 一451

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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