Lesson 6: Counting Numbers
Counting numbers in Chinese is relatively straight forward. You have one word representing each number from 0 to 10, 100, 1000, 10000 and 100000000 then you combine these words to get all the other numbers.
Vocabulary:
| Chinese Character | Pinyin | Pronunciation | Arabic Numerals | English Translation | |
| 零 | líng | 0 | zero | ||
| 一 | yī | 1 | one | ||
| 二 | èr | 2 | two | ||
| 三 | sān | 3 | three | ||
| 四 | sì | 4 | four | ||
| 五 | wǔ | 5 | five | ||
| 六 | liù | 6 | six | ||
| 七 | qī | 7 | seven | ||
| 八 | bā | 8 | eight | ||
| 九 | jiǔ | 9 | nine | ||
十 |
shí | 10 | ten | ||
| 十一 | shíyī | 11 | eleven | ||
| 二十 | èrshí | 20 | twenty | ||
| 二十一 | èrshíyī | 21 | twenty one | ||
| 一百 | yībǎi | 100 | one hundred | ||
| 百 | bǎi | x 100 | x hundred | ||
| 一百零一 | yībǎilíngyī | 101 | one hundred and one | ||
| 一百一 | yībǎiyī | 110 | one hundred and ten | ||
| 一百一十一 | yībǎiyīshíyī | 111 | one hundred and eleven | ||
| 一千 | yīqiān | 1000 | one thousand | ||
| 千 | qiān | x 1000 | x thousand | ||
| 一千零一 | yīqiānlíngyī | 1001 | one thousand and one | ||
| 一千零一十 | yīqiānlíngshí | 1010 | one thousand and ten | ||
| 一千一 | yīqiānyī | 1100 | eleven hundreds | ||
| 一千一百一十一 | yīqiānyībǎiyīshí | 1111 | eleven hundreds and eleven | ||
| 一万 | yīwàn | 10000 | ten thousands | ||
| 万 | wàn | x10000 | x ten thousands | ||
| 一百万 | yībǎiwàn | 1000000 | one million | ||
| 一亿 | yīyì | 100000000 | 100 million | ||
| 亿 | yì | x100000000 | x 100 million | ||
Tips:
- 2 digits numbers are usually 2 numbers (1-9) connected by "十". (e.g. 29 = 二 十九)
- 3 digits numbers are usually 1 number (1-9) and 2 numbers (10 to 99) connected by "百". (e.g. 329 = 三百 二十九)
- 4 digits numbers are usually 1 number (1-9) and 3 numbers (100 to 999) connected by "千". (e.g. 5329 = 五千 三百二十九)
- 5 digits numbers are usually 1 number (1-9) and 4 numbers (1000 to 9999) connected by "万". (e.g. 85329 = 八万 三百二十九)
- when to say a multiple digits number where only two most left digits are 1-9 and the rest are 0, you likely skip the word after the smallest none zero digit. (e.g. 580 = 五百八, skip十after 8 or 5800 = 五千八, skip百after 8)
Examples:
Click to hear the above dialog.
Translation to Arabic numerals:
68
399
5862
61439
918765
2315499
367000001
Chinese Calligraphy:
Questions and Comments
