Chinese numbers
Chinese counting is built from twelve words. Type any number to see it in characters, pinyin and the formal form, and hear it.
Formal form (大写): 贰仟零贰拾陆
Type a number in digits: up to 16 of them, a minus and a decimal part allowed.
Chinese numbers from 0 to 100
Thousands, millions, billions
| Number | Characters | Pinyin | 大写 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 一千 | yī qiān | 壹仟 |
| 2,000 | 两千 | liǎng qiān | 贰仟 |
| 10,000 | 一万 | yī wàn | 壹万 |
| 20,000 | 两万 | liǎng wàn | 贰万 |
| 100,000 | 十万 | shí wàn | 壹拾万 |
| 1,000,000 | 一百万 | yī bǎi wàn | 壹佰万 |
| 10,000,000 | 一千万 | yī qiān wàn | 壹仟万 |
| 100,000,000 | 一亿 | yī yì | 壹亿 |
How Chinese numbers are built
Tens are “how many tens”: 30 is 三十 “three-ten”, 47 is 四十七. Hundreds and thousands work the same way: 365 is 三百六十五. A zero inside a number is said once, however many zeros there are: 1005 is 一千零五.
4 (四 sì, sounding like 死 “death”) is avoided, and 8 (八 bā, close to 发 “to prosper”) is loved: phone numbers full of eights cost more.
Questions and answers
How do you count to 10 in Chinese?
一 yī, 二 èr, 三 sān, 四 sì, 五 wǔ, 六 liù, 七 qī, 八 bā, 九 jiǔ, 十 shí. Everything else is built from these: 11 is 十一 “ten-one”, 20 is 二十 “two-ten”, 99 is 九十九.
When is two 两 and when is it 二?
两 liǎng is “two” before a measure word and before 百, 千, 万: 两个人 “two people”, 两千 “two thousand”. 二 is used when counting, in tens and at the end of a number: 二十, 十二, 第二.
What are 万 and 亿?
Chinese counts in groups of four digits: 万 wàn is ten thousand, 亿 yì a hundred million. So a million is 一百万 “a hundred ten-thousands” and a billion is 十亿.
What is the 大写 form for?
The complex forms 壹, 贰, 叁… go on cheques, contracts and bank forms: unlike 一, 二 and 三 they can't be changed with one extra stroke.
How are phone numbers said?
Digit by digit, and 1 is often read 幺 yāo so it isn't confused with 七 qī: 138 is yāo sān bā.
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