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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.

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1. Numbers 0 to 10

Number Chinese Pinyin  
0 ; zero 零 / 〇 líng
1 ; one
2 ; two èr
3 ; three sān
4 ; four
5 ; five
6 ; six liù
7 ; seven
8 ; eight
9 ; nine jiǔ
10 ; ten ; tenth 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" ‹ 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) 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" ‹ shí ›, there are four other unit categories to count beyond 99, 999, 9.999 and over.

Chinese Pinyin Translation  
bǎi hundred (100)
qiān thousand (1.000)
wàn ten thousand (10.000)
亿 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
[voc2]

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.

un en chinois
deux en chinois
trois en chinois
quatre en chinois
cinq en chinois
six en chinois
sept en chinois
huit en chinois
neuf en chinois
dix en chinois
10 en chinois
dix (10) en chinois
NEXT LESSON :
Possession and classifiers