Structure of numbers

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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.

NumeralCharacterPinyin
1
2èr
3sān
4
5
6liù
7
8
9jiǔ
10shí

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
11 十一 shíyī
12 十二 shí'èr
13 十三 shísān
14 十四 shísì
15 十五 shíwǔ
16 十六 shíliù
17 十七 shíqī
18 十八 shíbā
19 十九 shíjiǔ

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
20 二十 èrshí
23 二十三 èrshísān
30 三十 sānshí
39 三十九 sānshíjiǔ
40 四十 sìshí
44 四十四 sìshísì
50 五十 wǔshí
73 七十三 qīshísān
82 八十二 bāshíèr
97 九十七 jiǔshíqī

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

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
101 一百零一 yībǎi líng yī
202 二百零二 èrbǎi líng èr
206 二百零六 èrbǎi líng liù
305 三百零五 sānbǎi líng wǔ
407 四百零七 sìbǎi líng qī
504 五百零四 wǔbǎi líng sì
602 六百零二 liùbǎi líng èr
701 七百零一 qībǎi líng yī
803 八百零三 bābǎi líng sān
909 九百零九 jiǔbǎi líng jiǔ

For numbers 110 and greater

x + 百 + y + 十 + z

For numbers greater than 100, if the number ends in zero (110, 230, 370, 450, etc.), a number like 150 can be read as 一百五十 (yībǎi wǔshí), but is often read as 一百五 (yībǎi wǔ). In fact, reading it as 一百五 (yībǎi wǔ) always means 150, never 105. As described above, 105 would be read as 一百零五 (yībǎi língwǔ).

One more tricky thing is that for numbers after 100, and when the last two digits are a number in the teens (110-119, 210-219, etc.), the number is read slightly differently. For example, with the number 115, it is read as 一百一十五 (yībǎi yīshíwǔ) and almost never as 一百十五 (yībǎi shíwǔ).

  • 115
  • yībǎi shíwǔ
  • yībǎi yīshíwǔ
  • 310
  • sānbǎi shí
  • sānbǎi yīshí

Also, sometimes the number 200, or "二百", is pronounced "èrbǎi," and sometimes it is pronounced "liǎngbǎi." Both are OK.

Examples

Digit Chinese Pinyin
110 一百一 yībǎi yīshí
111 一百一十一 yībǎi yīshí yī
210 二百一十 èrbǎi yīshí
350 三百五十 sānbǎi wǔshí
480 六百八 sìbǎi bāshí
550 五百五十 wǔbǎi wǔshí
635 六百三十五 liùbǎi sānshí wǔ
777 七百七十七 qībǎi qīshí qī
832 八百三十二 bābǎi sānshí èr
999 九百九十九 jiǔbǎi jiǔshí jiǔ

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
1001 一千零一 yīqiān líng yī
1010 一千零一十 yīqiān líng yīshí
1019 一千零一十九 yīqiān líng yīshí jiǔ
1020 一千零二十 yīqiān líng èrshí
1100 一千一百 yīqiān yībǎi
1101 一千一百零一 yīqiān yībǎi líng yī
1110 一千一百一十 yīqiān yībǎi yīshí
1234 一千二百三十四 yīqiān èrbǎi sānshí sì
8765 八千七百六十五 bāqiān qībǎi liùshí wǔ
9999 九千九百九十九 jiǔqiān jiǔbǎi jiǔshí jiǔ

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. 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
Typical split Chinese split Chinese Pinyin
10,000 1,0000 一万 yī wàn
12,000 1,2000 一万二 yīwàn èr
13,200 1,3200 一万三千两百 yī wàn sānqiān liǎng bǎi
56,700 5,6700 五万六千七百 wǔ wàn liùqiān qībǎi

Mandarin number structure

Chinese Pinyin English
亿 One hundred million
千万 qiān wàn Ten million
百万 bǎi wàn Million
十万 shí wàn Hundred thousand
wàn Ten thousand
qiān Thousand
bǎi Hundred
shí Ten
One

See also

Sources and further reading

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