Structure of numbers

Chinese handles numbers in a very consistent and logical way. Once you've mastered just a few tricky parts, you will know how to read out any number in Chinese.

One to one hundred

Structure for the first ten

You just have to memorize these ten; 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 (shí-yī), twelve is 十二 (shí-èr), thirteen is 十三 (shí-sān), and so on up to nineteen, which is 十九 (shí-jiǔ).

NumeralCharacterPinyin
11十一shí-yī
12十二shí-èr
13十三shí-sān
14十四shí-sì
15十五shí-wǔ
16十六shí-liù
17十七shí-qī
18十八shí-bā
19十九shí-jiǔ

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

NumeralCharacterPinyin
20二十èrshí
23二十三èrshí-sān
30三十sānshí
39三十九sānshí-jiǔ
40四十sìshí
44四十四sìshí-sì
50五十wǔshí
73七十三qīshí-sān
82八十二bāshí-èr
97九十七jiǔshí-qī

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

NumeralCharacterPinyin
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

NumeralCharacterPinyin
110一百十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
480四百八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

NumeralCharacterPinyin
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
1234一千二百三十四yīqiān èrbǎi sānshí sì
2345两千三百四十五liǎngqiān sānbǎi sìshí wǔ
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 splitChinese splitCharactersPinyin
10,0001,0000一万yī wàn
12,0001,2000一万二yīwàn èr
13,2001,3200一万三千两百yī wàn sānqiān liǎng bǎi
56,7005,6700五万六千七百wǔ wàn liùqiān qībǎi

Mandarin number structure

CharactersPinyinEnglish
亿Hundred million
千万qiān wànTen million
百万bǎi wànMillion
十万shí wànHundred thousand
wànTen thousand
qiānThousand
bǎiHundred
shíTen
One

See also

Sources and further reading

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