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
• 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

• Big Numbers
• Structure of dates
• Structure of days of the week

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) (pp. 104) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 122) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 2 (新实用汉语课本2) (pp. 18) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 3 (新实用汉语课本3) (pp. 81) →buy