Chinese Number 0 – 100+: A Beginner Guide (+ Free Quiz)

The Chinese language is notorious for being challenging when it comes to speaking, but what about the Chinese numbers?Learning the numbers are an unavoidable part of everyday life. Knowing how to ask someone the time or even how to answer administrative questions like how old you are or how many years of experience you have in a certain field will help immensely in your journey to fluency.

Luckily for you, all the information you’ll need to get by is in this article. Learn how to count up to a trillion (1 000 000 000 000) with audio guides, quizzes and number-related content like time, ordinals and even numerical slang terms.

Chinese Numbers 0 to 100 Table

Number	Character	Pinyin
1	一	Yī
2	二	Èr
3	三	Sān
4	四	Sì
5	五	Wǔ
6	六	Liù
7	七	Qī
8	八	Bā
9	九	Jiǔ
10	十	Shí
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
20	二十	Èr shí
21	二十一	Èr shí yī
22	二十二	Èr shí èr
23	二十三	Èr shí sān
24	二十四	Èr shí sì
25	二十五	Èr shí wǔ
26	二十六	Èr shí liù
27	二十七	Èr shí qī
28	二十八	Èr shí bā
29	二十九	Èr shí jiǔ
30	三十	Sān shí
31	三十一	Sān shí yī
32	三十二	Sān shí èr
33	三十三	Sān shí sān
34	三十四	Sān shí sì
35	三十五	Sān shí wǔ
36	三十六	Sān shí liù
37	三十七	Sān shí qī
38	三十八	Sān shí bā
39	三十九	Sān shí jiǔ
40	四十	Sì shí
41	四十一	Sì shí yī
42	四十二	Sì shí èr
43	四十三	Sì shí sān
44	四十四	Sì shí sì
45	四十五	Sì shí wǔ
46	四十六	Sì shí liù
47	四十七	Sì shí qī
48	四十八	Sì shí bā
49	四十九	Sì shí jiǔ
50	五十	Wǔ shí
51	五十一	Wǔ shí yī
52	五十二	Wǔ shí èr
53	五十三	Wǔ shí sān
54	五十四	Wǔ shí sì
55	五十五	Wǔ shí wǔ
56	五十六	Wǔ shí liù
57	五十七	Wǔ shí qī
58	五十八	Wǔ shí bā
59	五十九	Wǔ shí jiǔ
60	六十	Liù shí
61	六十一	Liù shí yī
62	六十二	Liù shí èr
63	六十三	Liù shí sān
64	六十四	Liù shí sì
65	六十五	Liù shí wǔ
66	六十六	Liù shí liù
67	六十七	Liù shí qī
68	六十八	Liù shí bā
69	六十九	Liù shí jiǔ
70	七十	Qī shí
71	七十一	Qī shí yī
72	七十二	Qī shí èr
73	七十三	Qī shí sān
74	七十四	Qī shí sì
75	七十五	Qī shí wǔ
76	七十六	Qī shí liù
77	七十七	Qī shí qī
78	七十八	Qī shí bā
79	七十九	Qī shí jiǔ
80	八十	Bā shí
81	八十一	Bā shí yī
82	八十二	Bā shí èr
83	八十三	Bā shí sān
84	八十四	Bā shí sì
85	八十五	Bā shí wǔ
86	八十六	Bā shí liù
87	八十七	Bā shí qī
88	八十八	Bā shí bā
89	八十九	Bā shí jiǔ
90	九十	Jiǔ shí
91	九十一	Jiǔ shí yī
92	九十二	Jiǔ shí èr
93	九十三	Jiǔ shí sān
94	九十四	Jiǔ shí sì
95	九十五	Jiǔ shí wǔ
96	九十六	Jiǔ shí liù
97	九十七	Jiǔ shí qī
98	九十八	Jiǔ shí bā
99	九十九	Jiǔ shí jiǔ
100	一百	Yì bǎi

Chinese Numbers 0 to 10

These are the Chinese numbers that will benefit you the most to learn and memorize. This is because these symbols will act as the base for any number you’ll want to express. The Chinese number system follows a very watertight logical approach. Once you have these numbers down, you will have basically learned every number except for a few cases that are just as easy to learn.

Number: Zero (0) / Chinese character: 零 / Pinyin: líng

Number: One (1) / Chinese character: 一 / Pinyin: yì

Number: Two (2) / Chinese character: 二 / Pinyin: èr

Number: Three (3) / Chinese character: 三 / Pinyin: sān

Number: Four (4) / Chinese character: 四 / Pinyin: sì

Number: Five (5) / Chinese character: 五 / Pinyin: wǔ

Number: Six (6) / Chinese character: 六 / Pinyin: liù

Number: Seven (7) / Chinese character: 七 / Pinyin: qī

Number: Eight (8) / Chinese character: 八 / Pinyin: bā

Number: Nine (9) / Chinese character: 九 / Pinyin: jiǔ

Number: Ten (10) / Chinese character: 十 / Pinyin: shí

QUIZ QUESTION 1: Which of these numbers is the answer to 15 – 8? 1. 九 2. 七 3. 十

Chinese Numbers 10 to 99

The rule for numbers bigger than 10 is simple. Remember that Chinese character, 十 or shí? That symbol is very important for the following numbers. In English, you’re familiar with numerical placeholders like hundreds, tens, and units. The same applies to the Chinese number system where 十 acts as both the number 10 and the placeholder for tens, For example – if you wanted to express the number 40, you would express it as 四十 which can be read as four tens.  To express a number that isn’t a perfect ten, simply add the following number at the end. In this instance, 45 is expressed as 四十五 or four tens and five.

Number: Sixteen (16) / Chinese character: 十六 / Pinyin: shí liù

Number: Twenty-four (24) / Chinese character: 二十四 / Pinyin: èr shí sì

Number: Thirty-seven (37) / Chinese character: 三十七 / Pinyin: sān shí qī

Number: Forty-eight (48) / Chinese character: 四十八 / Pinyin: sì shí bā

Number: Fifty-three (53) / Chinese character: 五十三 / Pinyin: wǔ shí sān

Number: Sixty-five (65) / Chinese character: 六十五 / Pinyin: liù shí wǔ

Number: Seventy-two (72) / Chinese character: 七十二 / Pinyin: qī shí èr

Number: Eighty-one (81) / Chinese character: 八十一 / Pinyin: bā shí yì

Number: Ninety-nine (99) / Chinese character: 九十九 / Pinyin: jiǔ shí jiǔ

QUIZ QUESTION 2: Which of these numbers correctly expresses the value 67? 1. 十六七 2. 六十五 3. 六十七

Chinese Numbers 100 to 999

Similarly to the numbers presented above, these numbers follow the number + placeholder + number format. This format gets compounded as the number gets bigger — hundreds then tens then units. However, there are two new exceptions that will benefit you to learn.

The first is the symbol 百 or bǎi which is the Chinese number hundred and also the numerical placeholder hundreds. Therefore 300 would be 三百 or sān bǎi.

The second exception is the word for two in this format. Up until now, the number two was expressed as 二 or èr and that remains the case when it is in the tens or units placeholders. When it is in the hundreds, thousands and bigger numerical placeholders, it is expressed as 两 or liǎng. So 215 would be 两百一十五.

If the number in the tens placeholder is zero, there’s no need to express the 十 because there are no tens.

Number: One hundred (100) / Chinese character: 一百 / Pinyin: yì bǎi

Number: Two hundred and nine (209) / Chinese character: 两百零九 / Pinyin: liǎng bǎi líng jiǔ

Number: Three hundred and twelve (312) / Chinese character: 三百一十二 / Pinyin: sān bǎi yì shí èr

Number: Four hundred and twenty-five (425) / Chinese character: 四百二十五 / Pinyin: sì bǎi èr shí wǔ

Number: Five hundred and thirty-six (536) / Chinese character: 五百三十六 / Pinyin: wǔ bǎi sān shí liù

Number: Six hundred and forty-nine (649) / Chinese character: 六百四十九 / Pinyin: liù bǎi sì shí jiǔ

Number: Seven hundred and fifty-two (752) / Chinese character: 七百五十二 / Pinyin: qī bǎi wǔ shí èr

Number: Eight hundred and sixty-seven (867) / Chinese character: 八百六十七 / Pinyin: bā bǎi liù shí qī

Number: Nine hundred and ninety-eight (998) / Chinese character: 九百九十八 / Pinyin: jiǔ bǎi jiǔ shí bā

QUIZ QUESTION 3 Which of these numbers correctly expresses the 299? 1. 二百九十九 2. 二百九九十 3. 兩百九十九

Chinese Numbers 1,000 & Above – the Big Numbers

These symbols and words, while not likely used in everyday life, are good to have on hand. If fluency is your goal then these words will help you.

Number: One thousand (1,000)/ Chinese character: 一千 / Pinyin: yì qiān

Number: Ten-thousand (10,000) / Chinese character: 一万 / Pinyin: yì wàn

Number: One million (1,000,000) / Chinese character: 一百万 / Pinyin: yì bǎi wàn

Number: One billion (1,000,000,000) / Chinese character: 一十亿 / Pinyin: yì shí yì

Number: One trillion (1,000,000,000,000) / Chinese character: 一兆 / Pinyin: yì zhào

QUIZ QUESTION 4 Which of these values accurately expresses three trillion? 1. 三兆 2. 三百万 3. 兩兆

Chinese Numbers: 4 digits instead of 3

Unlike in English, where commas are placed in a number to digit group 3 units, the Chinese number system places commas to groups of four digits. With this knowledge, it will be easier for you to be able to decipher large numbers into smaller sections that you can easily read. Due to this distinction, numbers are pronounced differently in Chinese.

• 12,621

In English, this number would be written as 12,621 and therefore pronounced twelve thousand, six hundred and twenty-one.

In Chinese, the number would be written as 12,621 and therefore pronounced as one ten thousand ( 一万 ), two thousand ( 两千 ), six hundred ( 六百 ) and twenty-one ( 二十一 ).

The whole number would read as 一万两千六百 二十一

• 3,056,211

This number would then be written as 3,056,211 and expressed as three millions ( 三百万 ), five ten-thousands ( 五万 ), six thousands ( 六千 ), two hundreds ( 两百 ) and eleven ( 十一 ).

The whole number would read as 三百万五万六千两百十一

• 4,000,098,126

This number would be written as 4,000,098,126 and expressed as 4 billions ( 四十亿 ), zero ( 零 ), 9 ten-thousands ( 九万 ), 8 thousands ( 八千 ), 1 hundred ( 一百 ) and twenty-six (二十六 ).

The whole number would read as 四十亿零九万八千一百二十六

QUIZ QUESTION 5 What is the correct corresponding symbol for the 5 (五) in this number: 38541? 1. 万 2. 百 3. 十亿

Chinese Ordinal Numbers

In order to express the order of something in a sequence using the Chinese number system, the symbol 第 or dì is placed before the number.

Ordinal Number	Chinese character	Pinyin
First (1st)	第一	dì yì
Second (2nd)	第二	dì yì
Third (3rd)	第三	dì sān
Fourth (4th)	第四	dì sì
Fifth (5th)	第五	dì wŭ

Chinese Numbers: Difference between 二 (èr) and 兩 (liǎng)

The number two is a special case in the Chinese number system for several reasons. First and foremost, there are two ways to express it! These, however, aren’t interchangeable and have very concrete rules about which instances to use them.

The number two can be expressed as èr or liǎng.

• (èr) is used when expressing numbers that have the number two in the tens and units numerical placeholders as well as in an ordinal context.

e.g. 23 – 二十三 / 82 – 八十二

• (liǎng) is used when expressing numbers with the number two is being used as a measurement of quantity or to express “both” things.

e.g. two months (兩個月)

• (liǎng) is also used as the first digit in a number with a placeholder larger than ten such as hundred or thousand. If the word ends in a 2 or has a 2 in the tens, then (èr) is used.

e.g. 252 – 兩百五十二

QUIZ QUESTION 6: Which of these options correctly express the number 27? 1. 二十七 2. 兩十七 3. 二七十

Chinese Numbers: Dates in Chinese

With the base knowledge of the numbers, it’s really easy to grasp how to express the year, months, days and date in Chinese.

Years

The year is expressed digit-by-digit then the word 年 (nián).

e.g. 1975 – 一九七五年 (yi jiu qi wu nian）

Months

To say month, you simply need to know the word 月 (yuè). If your goal is to say a particular month, simply add the corresponding month’s number to the word.

e.g. September (9th month) – 九月 (jiŭyuè)

Date

If you want to say what the date is in Chinese, you should know the terms 日 (rì) or 号 (hào). If you want to say the sixth day of the month, you would say it as 六号 (liù hào).

With all these elements, saying the date is easy – simply combine the month with the day.

e.g. July 15 – 七月十五号 (qī yuè shí wǔ hào)

Chinese: 星期一 / Pinyin: xīngqī yī / English: Monday

Chinese: 星期二 / Pinyin: xīngqī èr / English: Tuesday

Chinese: 星期三 / Pinyin: xīngqī sān / English: Wednesday

Chinese: 星期四 / Pinyin: xīngqī sì / English: Thursday

Chinese: 星期五 / Pinyin: xīngqī wŭ / English: Friday

Chinese: 星期六 / Pinyin: xīngqī liù / English: Saturday

Chinese: 星期天 / Pinyin: xīngqī tiān / English: Sunday

QUIZ QUESTION 7: On Wednesday, you get asked by a friend if you want to go for lunch in two days from now. On what day will you and your friend be meeting up? 1. 星期四 2. 星期天 3. 星期五

Chinese Numbers: Tell Time in Chinese

Telling time in Chinese is another one of the elements of this language that isn’t challenging. It’s important before knowing how to tell time to familiarise yourself with the key terms in this sector of communication in the event that you need to think quickly for yourself. Knowing these terms also helps improve your fluency.

The format

Just like with English, the Chinese system for time uses the 24 hour format. The first 12 used to express the AM (上午 – shàng wǔ) and the remaining 12 for the PM (下午 – xià wǔ).

Key terms

In the event that you want to express the time to someone who asks you, it will help you to know how to say the following:

Hours

There are two ways of communicating the hours in Chinese.

The first being the word which literally translates to “hours” which would be 小时 (xiǎo shì).

The word for hour as in “o’clock” is 点钟 (diǎn zhōng) or just 点 (diǎn) in everyday conversation. This word follows any number from 1 to 24, where two is expressed as 两 and not 二.

e.g. 7 o’clock – 七点 （qī diǎn)

Minutes

Now to further communicate time, you should know how to express the minutes in a certain time.

The word that will help you do this is 分钟 (fēn zhōng) or just 分 (fēn). This follows the hours format from above.

e.g. 7:13 – 七点十三分 (qī diǎn shì sān fēn)

Additionally, if you want to say half past or quarter past, those have their own terms — 点半 (diǎn bàn) and 一刻 (yī kè).

e.g. 7:30 – 七点半 (half past 7) / 7:15 – 七点一刻 (quarter past 7)

Seconds

To express seconds, the term 秒钟 (miǎo zhōng) or 妙 (miǎo) is used.

When expressing a numerical value with this term, the number precedes the term.

e.g. 20 seconds – 二十秒 (èr shì miǎo)

QUIZ QUESTION 8: Someone asks you for the time and you look down at your digital watch. You see it is currently 18:27. How would you express this to the person? 1. 十八二十七分 2. 十八点二十七分 3. 六点两十七分

Chinese Numbers: Slang

With the advent of the internet came Chinese online communities that coined slang terms that correspond with particular numbers. They determined these Chinese expressions based on the number’s likeness to words with similar pronunciations.

• 1314

“Forever”

This numerical combination means “forever” as it is pronounced similarly to 一生一世（yī shēng yī shì) which roughly translates to whole/entire life.

• 520 (521)

“I love you”

As for this number – the numbers 五二零 (wǔ èr líng) or 五二一 (wǔ èr yī) sound phonetically similar to 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ) meaning I love you.

• 484

“Are you dumb?”

四八四 (sì bā sì), which is pronounced in a similar way to 是不是 (shì bù shì), is a tongue-in-cheek way to call someone stupid as means to poke fun at them.

• 7451/7456

“I’m so angry”

This number is used to express anger or irritation due to 七四五一 (qī sì wǔ yī) or 七四五六 (qī sì wǔ liù) sounding like 气死我了 (qì sǐ wǒ liǎo) which roughly translates to I’m furious.

• 666

“Good job”

In the English-speaking world this number (六六六 – liù liù liù) is negatively connotated, often associated with bad omens or things of the sort. The opposite is true for the online Chinese-speaking world though. Sounding phonetically similar to 溜溜溜 (liū liū liū), a remark gamers would send each other to acknowledge something that they found impressive.

• 995

“Save me”

The number 九九五 (jiǔ jiǔ wǔ) is pronounced similarly to 救救我 – jiù jiù wǒ and online Chinese speakers use this to jokingly say “save me” to each other.

QUIZ QUESTION 9: Which number would you use online when trying to express your affections to your significant other? 1. 520 2. 555 3. 484

Chinese Numbers: Counting with Fingers

The coolest part about the Chinese numerical system is the simple way to represent the numbers with easy hand gestures. What’s so easy about them, you ask? Well, you only need one hand when using them – yes, even for numbers bigger than five!

Native English speakers are used to using two hands when counting from 6 to 10, but with the Chinese number system, that’s rarely necessary except for the number 10 which in certain regions is expressed by creating 十 with both index fingers.

With this knowledge and the visual chart above, you’ll be mastering Chinese finger counting in no time at all.

三, 二, 一 Are You Ready?

With all the aforementioned information covered in this in-depth article, you now have knowledge surrounding the Chinese numerical system. With audio assistance and visual aids, you now know more about how to tell the date, how to sort items in numerical order and see how long it takes to count to a million.

Don’t be shy to check out other language articles like Japanese numbers or Telling Time in Korean!

While you’re here, make sure to check out the language courses provided by AmazingTalker to equip yourself with the tools to improve your fluency in a range of languages.

 

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. 2
2. 3
3. 3
4. 1
5. 2
6. 1
7. 3
8. 2
9. 1