Numbers in Chinese Characters

Learn how to count numbers in Chinese is very necessary for living in China. Although the whole world is using the Arabic numerals, you still need to learn how to read them in Chinese, and how to write them in Chinese characters.

1. Number’s Chart in Chinese Character (from 0 to 10)

Number	Chinese character	Pinyin	English
0	零	línɡ	zero
1	一	yī	one
2	二	èr	two
3	三	sān	three
4	四	sì	four
5	五	wǔ	five
6	六	liù	six
7	七	qī	seven
8	八	bā	eight
9	九	jiǔ	nine
10	十	shí	ten

Pay attention to number 1 and number 2, the pronunciation of these two numbers are a bit special in Chinese, when 1 exits in tel-phone numbers or address numbers, we prefer to say "yāo" instead of "yī", number 2 is a bit complicated, when we do the count, the number 2 is always read as "èr", when it occurs with a measure word following such as "bēi杯", "ge个", the number 2 should be read as "liǎng 两", for example," two cups of coffee" in English is "liǎng bēi kā fēi 两杯咖啡" in Chinese.

2. Count numbers from 1 to 99 in Chinese

Also, numbers from 11-99 are extremely easier than those in English, you don't need to memorize new word, just combine these 10 numbers. For example, eleven is ten plus one, so in Chinese, we use "十一shí yī" to express eleven，twenty is two 10，so "èr shí" is twenty. I'm sure now you know all other numbers in Chinese from 0-99,they are: 零(línɡ)，一(yī)，二(èr)，三(sān)，四(sì)，五(wǔ)，六(liù)，七(qī)，八(bā)，九(jiǔ)，十(shí)，十(shí)一(yī)，十(shí)二(èr)，十(shí)三(sān)，十(shí)四(sì)，十(shí)五(wǔ)，十(shí)六(liù)，十(shí)七(qī)，十(shí)八(bā)，十(shí)九(jiǔ)，二(èr)十(shí)，二(èr)十(shí)一(yī)，二(èr)十(shí)二(èr)，……九(jiǔ)十(shí)八(bā)，九(jiǔ)十(shí)九(jiǔ)。

3. Ordinal numbers in Chinese

Chinese character	Pinyin	English
第一	dì yī	First
第二	dì èr	Second
第三	dì sān	Third
第四	dì sì	Fourth
第五	dì wǔ	Fifth
第六	dì liù	Sixth
第七	dì qī	Seventh
第八	dì bā	Eighth
第九	dì jiǔ	Ninth
第十	dì shí	Tenth

4. Big numbers in Chinese

Number	Chinese character	Pinyin	English
100	一百	yì bǎi	One hundred
1000	一千	yì qiān	One thousand
10,000	一万	yí wàn	Ten thousand
100,000	十万	shí wàn	A hundred thousand
1,000,000	一百万	yì bǎi wàn	One million
10,000,000	一千万	yì qiān wàn	Ten million
100,000,000	一亿	yí yì	One hundred million
1,000,000,000	十亿	shí yì	One billion

5. Watch the Video Tutorial about Chinnese Numbers, counting 1-99 in Chinese Mandarin.

Above are the basic Chinese character about numbers. If you want to learn more, book a free trial class here!