Structure of numbers

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

  • 一 百 零 一 yī bǎi líng yī101
  • 三 百 零 五sān bǎi líng wǔ305
  • 九 百 零 九jiǔ bǎi líng jiǔ909
  • 两 百 零 六liǎng bǎi líng liù206
  • 四 百 零 七sì bǎi líng qī407
  • 八 百 零 三bā bǎi líng sān803
  • 五 百 零 四wǔ bǎi líng sì504
  • 六 百 零 二liù bǎi líng èr602
  • 七 百 零 一qī bǎi líng yī701
  • 两 百 零 二liǎng bǎi líng èr202

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

  • 一 百 一 十 一yī bǎi yī shí yī111
  • 一 百 一yī bǎi yī110
  • 二 百 一 十èr bǎi yī shí 210
  • 二 百 一 十 个 人èr bǎi yī shí gè rén210 people
  • 三 百 五 十sān bǎi wǔ shí 350
  • 九 百 九 十jiǔ bǎi jiǔ shí 990
  • 八 百 七bā bǎi qī870
  • 五 百 五wǔ bǎi wǔ550
  • 四 百 六sì bǎi liù460
  • 六 百 八 十liù bǎi bā shí 680

Structure for 111

x + 百 + y + 十 + z

Examples

  • 一 百 一 十 一yī bǎi yī shí yī111
  • 九 百 一 十 五jiǔ bǎi yī shí wǔ915
  • 六 百 三 十 五liù bǎi sān shí wǔ635
  • 一 百 二 十 三yī bǎi èr shí sān123
  • 两 百 四 十 九liǎng bǎi sì shí jiǔ249
  • 三 百 六 十 五sān bǎi liù shí wǔ365
  • 九 百 九 十 九jiǔ bǎi jiǔ shí jiǔ999
  • 两 百 二 十 二liǎng bǎi èr shí èr222
  • 八 百 三 十 二bā bǎi sān shí èr832
  • 四 百 五 十 一sì bǎi wǔ shí yī451

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

  • 一 千 零 一yīqiān líng yī1001
  • 一 千 零 一 十yīqiān líng yīshí1010
  • 一 千 零 一 十 一yīqiān líng yīshíyī1011
  • 一 千 零 一 十 九yīqiān líng yīshíjiǔ1019
  • 一 千 零 二 十yīqiān líng èrshí1020
  • 一 千 一 百yīqiān yībǎi1100
  • 一 千 一 百 零 一yīqiān yībǎi líng yī1101
  • 一 千 一 百 一 十yīqiān yībǎi yīshí1110
  • 九 千 九 百 九 十 九jiǔqiān jiǔbǎi jiǔshíjiǔ9999

More examples

Mandarin numbers examples
Digit Chinese Pinyin English
1 一 yī one
10 十 shí ten
13 十三 shísān thirteen
20 二十 èrshí twenty
21 二十一 èrshíyī twenty-one
99 九十九 jiǔshíjiǔ ninety-nine
100 一百 yībǎi one hundred
101 一百零一 yībǎi líng yī one hundred and one
110 一百一十 yībǎi yīshí one hundred and ten
119 一百一十九 yībǎi yīshíjiǔ 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 - 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:

  • 一 万 二yī wàn èr12,000

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.

More examples:

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

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