Chinese numbers: write and say any number

Chinese numbers 1 to 10

Every number from 0 to 10 has its own character, and they are the same in Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Tap a character to hear it. The last column has the financial form used on invoices, explained further down.

With these eleven and four more characters, 百, 千, 万 (萬) and 亿 (億), you can write every number up to the hundreds of billions.

Every Mandarin syllable in all its tones, with audio: the pinyin chart

Chinese numbers 11 to 100

Numbers up to 99 are built like a sum. 十一 is ten and one: 11. 二十 is two tens: 20. 二十一 is two tens and one: 21. So 99 is 九十九, and 100 is 一百 yìbǎi.

Pinyin writes a number up to 99 as one word: shíyī, èrshí, jiǔshíjiǔ. In shí'èr (12) the apostrophe only shows where the second syllable starts.

Pinyin for a whole Chinese sentence, not just a number: Chinese to pinyin converter

Big numbers are grouped by four digits

Chinese has a word for 10,000: 万 wàn (萬 in Traditional), and the next one, 亿 yì (億), is 100,000,000. So big numbers are counted in ten-thousands: 100,000 is 十万, ten ten-thousands, and 1,000,000 is 一百万, a hundred ten-thousands. Japanese and Korean count the same way.

To read a long number, split its digits into groups of four from the right. Read each group like a number under 10,000 and add its unit: 亿, then 万, then nothing.

123 456 789 → 1 · 2345 · 6789 → 一亿 二千三百四十五万 六千七百八十九
yíyì èrqiān sānbǎi sìshíwǔ wàn liùqiān qībǎi bāshíjiǔ

When to say 零 (zero)

零 líng marks a gap inside a number: 105 is 一百零五 and 1,005 is 一千零五. Several zeros in a row are said only once, and zeros at the end are not said at all: 1,500 is 一千五百. A group of four that starts with zeros also gets a 零, as 10,010 in the table shows.

Two more details. From 10 to 19 a number starts with 十, without 一, but inside a longer number the 一 is said: 110 is 一百一十. And in years and other digits read one by one, zero is often written 〇: 二〇二六.

二 or 两: two ways to say two

Chinese has two words for two.

• 二 èr is the number: for counting, in 十二 and 二十, in ordinals such as 第二, after a decimal point and when digits are read one by one.
• 两 liǎng (兩 in Traditional) is two of something. It comes before a measure word, as in 两个 (兩個), two of them, and in clock times: 两点 (兩點), two o'clock.
• Before 百, 千, 万 and 亿 at the start of a number most people say 两: 两千 (兩千), 两万 (兩萬). 二千 is also correct and common in writing. Inside a number 二 is the usual written form: 一千二百.

The tone of 一 changes

On its own, at the end of a number and in 十一 or 第一, 一 is yī. Before 百 and 千 most speakers say yì, and before 万 and 亿 yí: 一百 yìbǎi, 一千 yìqiān, 一万 yíwàn. Dictionaries keep yī, so the tool lets you choose.

How the four tones work, and the other tone changes: Chinese tones

Phone and room numbers: 1 is said yāo

Phone, room, bus and flight numbers are read digit by digit. Then 1 is usually said yāo instead of yī, so that it cannot be mistaken for 七 qī: 110 is yāo yāo líng, and room 305 is sān líng wǔ. The tool shows this reading in its own row.

Dates, days of the week and the time

A Chinese date goes from the largest unit to the smallest: year 年 nián, month 月 yuè, day 日 rì. The year is read digit by digit, the month and the day as numbers. In speech the day usually takes 号 (號) hào instead of 日.

The days of the week are 星期 xīngqī and a number: 星期一 is Monday, 星期二 Tuesday, and so on up to 星期六, Saturday. Sunday is 星期日 or 星期天. Signs and timetables often write 周一 (週一) instead of 星期一.

For the time, 点 (點) diǎn is the hour and 分 fēn the minutes. 半 bàn is half past, 一刻 yí kè a quarter. 上午 means morning, 下午 afternoon and 晚上 evening; timetables and tickets use the 24-hour clock.

Prices on a menu or a price tag

Prices are written in digits with 元 yuán, or with the yuan sign in front, and said with 块 (塊) kuài. A tenth of a yuan is 角 jiǎo in writing and 毛 máo in speech; 分 fēn, a hundredth, is rarely used now. The last unit is usually left out: 12.80 is said 十二块八.

These words often stand next to the price:

Menus, labels and Chinese apps on your phone: how to read them from a screenshot

Chinese text from a photo or a screenshot, in the browser: Chinese OCR

Financial numerals on invoices and cheques

Invoices, receipts, cheques, bank forms and contracts write amounts with a second set of characters, 壹, 贰 (貳), 叁 (參) and so on, called 大写 (大寫), capital numbers. Ordinary numerals are easy to change: one stroke turns 一 into 二, and 十 into 千. The financial forms cannot be changed that way.

An amount in whole yuan ends with 元整 (整 means exact, nothing follows), 10 is written 壹拾 and not only 拾, and tenths and hundredths of a yuan are 角 and 分. The tool writes amounts this way:

12 345.67 → 壹万贰仟叁佰肆拾伍元陆角柒分
壹萬貳仟參佰肆拾伍元陸角柒分
1 000 → 壹仟元整 · 16 → 壹拾陆元整 · 325.04 → 叁佰贰拾伍元零肆分

In Taiwan these forms are called 國字大寫, three is written 參, and amounts are in New Taiwan dollars, as in 新臺幣壹萬元整. The tool's Traditional setting uses these forms.

Ordinals, floors, percentages and fractions

第 dì before a number makes an ordinal: 第一 dì-yī first, 第二 dì-èr second, 第三次 the third time. Floors are counted from the street, so 一楼 (一樓) is the ground floor.

A percentage is said as a part of a hundred: 百分之五十 bǎi fēn zhī wǔshí is 50%. A fraction names the whole first: 三分之一 is one third. On a sale sign 八折 means you pay 80% of the price.

Counting on one hand

In China every number from 1 to 10 can be shown with one hand, which helps in a loud market. 1 to 5 are raised fingers, as in many countries. The others:

• 6: thumb and little finger out, the other fingers folded.
• 7: the tips of the thumb, index and middle finger pressed together.
• 8: thumb and index finger out, like the letter L.
• 9: the index finger bent into a hook.
• 10: a fist, or the two index fingers crossed into a 十.

The signs vary from region to region, and some are different in Taiwan and Hong Kong. When in doubt, say the number or type it on your phone.

Lucky and unlucky numbers

8, 八 bā, sounds close to 发 (發) fā, as in 发财 (發財), to become rich. That is why the Beijing Olympics opened at 8:08 pm on 8 August 2008, and why phone numbers and number plates full of 8s are in demand.

6, 六 liù, stands for things going smoothly, as in 六六大顺 (六六大順). 9, 九 jiǔ, sounds like 久 jiǔ, long-lasting, so it is popular for weddings and gifts.

4, 四 sì, sounds close to 死 sǐ, death. Many buildings have no 4th floor, or no 14th, and some leave out every floor with a 4.

Some numbers are slang. 520, wǔ èr líng, sounds like 我爱你 (我愛你), I love you, so 20 May is a day for couples. 250, 二百五 èrbǎiwǔ, is an insult that means a fool.

Numbers on a menu, a label or a sign

The tool on this page needs numbers you can type. For the prices on a printed menu, the date on a package or a number on a sign, HanCam reads the Chinese with the camera of your iPhone or iPad and shows the characters with pinyin and tone marks, and the meaning underneath. It reads printed, horizontal text on the device itself. The meaning is in your phone's language where Apple's on-device translation offers it, and in English otherwise, and it also works offline once the language pack is downloaded.

Questions and answers