Chinese numbers - Lesson 06

Chinese numbering is much easier to learn and understand than in French; indeed, there is no complicated composition like in that language.

1. Numbers 0 to 10

Number	Chinese	Pinyin
0 ; zero	零 / 〇	líng
1 ; one	一	yī
2 ; two	二	èr
3 ; three	三	sān
4 ; four	四	sì
5 ; five	五	wǔ
6 ; six	六	liù
7 ; seven	七	qī
8 ; eight	八	bā
9 ; nine	九	jiǔ
10 ; ten ; tenth	十	shí

2. Multiples of 10

The multiple of 10, up to 90, are easy to form since we take the multiplier number to which we add "10" 十 ‹ shí ›.

Number	Chinese	Pinyin
20 ; twenty	二十	èr shí
30 ; thirty	三十	sān shí
40 ; forty	四十	sì shí
50 ; fifty	五十	wǔ shí
60 ; sixty	六十	liù shí
70 ; seventy	七十	qī shí
80 ; eighty	八十	bā shí
90 ; ninety	九十	jiǔ shí

3. Counting up to 99

To count from 11 to 99, just take one of the multiple of 10 seen above and add a number between 1 and 9.

Few examples :

Number	Chinese	Pinyin
11 ; eleven ; (10 + 1)	十一	shí yī
12 ; twelve ; (10 + 2)	十二	shí èr
13 ; thirteen ; (10 + 3)	十三	shí sān
24 ; twenty-four ; (2 x 10 + 4)	二十四	èr shí sì
38 ; thirty-eight ; (3 x 10 + 8)	三十八	sān shí bā
45; forty-five ; (4 x 10 + 5)	四十五	sì shí wǔ
55 ; fifty-five ; (50 x 10 + 5)	五十五	wǔ shí wǔ
63 ; sisty-five ; (6 x 10 + 3)	六十三	liù shí sān
72 ; seventy-two ; (6 x 10 + 2)	七十二	qī shí èr
81 ; eighty-one ; (8 x 10 + 1)	八十一	bā shí yī
99 ; ninety-nine ; (9 x 10 + 9)	九十九	jiǔ shí jiǔ

4. Four types of units

In addition to "10" 十 ‹ shí ›, there are four other unit categories to count beyond 99, 999, 9.999 and over.

Chinese	Pinyin	Translation
百	bǎi	hundred (100)
千	qiān	thousand (1.000)
万	wàn	ten thousand (10.000)
亿	yì	hundreds of millions (100.000.000)

5. Large numbers

Like for the tens numbers, to compose large numbers, we place before one of the four unit types a multiplier number from 1 to 9.

Translation	Chinese	Pinyin
100 ; one hundred	一百	yī bǎi
200 ; two hundred	二百	èr bǎi
1.000 ; one thousand	一千	yī qiān
3.000 ; three thousand	三千	sān qiān
9.999	九千九百九十九	jiǔ qiān jiǔ bǎi jiǔ shí jiǔ
10.000 ; ten thousand	一万	yī wàn
40.000 ; forty thousand	四万	sì wàn
100.000 ; one hundred thousand; (10 x 10.000)	十万	shí wàn
500.000 ;five hundred thousand	五十万	wǔ shí wàn
1.000.000 ; one million ; (100 x 10.000)	一百万	yī bǎi wàn
6.000.000 ; six million	六百万	liù bǎi wàn
10.000.000 ; ten million (1.000 x 10.000)	一千万	yī qiān wàn
70.000.000 ; seventy million	七千万	qī qiān wàn
100.000.000 ; one hundred million	一亿	yī yì
800.000.000 ; eight hundred million	八亿	bā yì
1.000.000.000 ; one billion ; (10 x 100.000.000)	十亿	shí yì

In Chinese, if there is a zero (0) between two categories of units, it is written and pronounced (once).

108 = 一百〇八 ‹ yī bǎi líng bā ›
and not 一百八
10.050.082 = 一千〇五万〇八十二 ‹ yīqiān líng wǔwàn líng bā shí èr ›
and not 一千五万八十二
1.006 = 一千〇六 ‹ yī qiān líng liù ›
and not 一千六 ou 一千〇〇六

Should you wish to venture further by training yourself or simply wish to translate large number, you can use our numbers and dates online translator.

6. Years, phone n°, ...

- When we convey a year or a number (phone number or registration number for example), it must be done digit by digit.
- For number enumerations like a phone number, the Chinese often replace 一 by 幺 ‹ yāo › in spoken.

(year) 2014 = 二〇一四(年) ‹ èr líng yī sì (nián) ›
and not 二千〇一十四

7. Number with hand signs

The Chinese do not use the same hand signs for counting than we do, or to confer a number between 1 and 10. In fact, our "2" for example may look like the Chinese "8". In addition, the number 10 may vary according to the region.