1 · Nouns, numbers and measure words
Counting with shí, bǎi, qiān and wàn
the number system
Ten digits and four place words build every number up to the hundred millions.
The digits are 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十. Everything between eleven and ninety-nine is built from them like a small sum: 十一is “ten one”二十is “two ten”九十九is “nine ten nine” There are no special words like “eleven”, “twelve”, “-teen” or “-ty” to learn — once you know ten digits you can say ninety-nine numbers.
Above that come four place words: 百 hundred, 千 thousand, 万 ten thousand and, much later, 亿 a hundred million. They follow the digit just as “hundred” does in English: 三百四十五 is 345. The trap is the grouping. English counts in thousands and puts a comma every three digits; Chinese counts in ten-thousands. So 10,000 is 一万, not “ten thousand”, a hundred thousand is 十万 — ten ten-thousands — and a million is 一百万, a hundred ten-thousands.
A gap inside a number is filled with 零, “zero”: 105 is 一百零五, a hundred, nothing, five. However many zeros stand together, 零 is said once: 1005 is 一千零五. Zeros at the end are not said at all — the place words already show them.
Two details of sound. A number from ten to nineteen starts with 十 alone, without a “one” in front: 十五. And 一 changes its tone as it does elsewhere — yì before 百 and 千, yí before 万 — but keeps yī when you count, and at the end of a number (十一, 二十一). This site writes the tones as they are spoken.
The form
| eleven: ten and one | 十一 |
| twenty: two tens | 二十 |
| ninety-nine | 九十九 |
| three hundred and forty-five | 三百四十五 |
| a gap is said as líng | 一百零五 |
| ten thousand is one wàn | 一万 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Tens and units are built like a sum: two, ten, one is twenty-one.
我们班有二十一个学生。There are twenty-one students in our class.
The place words 百 and 千 follow their digit, as “hundred” does in English.
这本书有三百二十页。This book has three hundred and twenty pages.
Chinese groups big numbers in fours: 万 is a unit of its own, and a hundred thousand is “ten wàn”.
这辆车十二万块钱。This car costs a hundred and twenty thousand yuan.
A gap inside a number is said once as 零; zeros at the end are not said.
一共两千零五十块。That comes to two thousand and fifty yuan altogether.
A closer look
Reading a long number aloud
The easiest way to read a big number is to move the commas. Written the English way, 1,250,000 hides the Chinese grouping; regroup it from the right in fours — 125,0000 — and it reads itself: a hundred and twenty-five 万, 一百二十五万. Above that, the next four digits are counted in 亿, a hundred million, so the system needs only two big words where English needs million, billion and so on.
Past a hundred, the ten keeps its “one”: 115 is said as “one hundred, one ten, five”, not “one hundred, ten, five”. And telephone, room and bus numbers are read digit by digit, with the digit one usually said yāo so that it cannot be mistaken for seven, qī, over a bad line.
Exceptions and special cases (1)
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a number starts with ten
say 十 on its own, not “one ten”: 十五, 十八.
我儿子十五岁。My son is fifteen.
At the start the “one” is taken for granted; it only comes back inside a longer number, after 百 or 千.
How to spot it
- 十
- 百
- 千
- 万
- 零
Example sentences
我今年二十五岁。I am twenty-five this year.
这件衣服三百八十块。This top costs three hundred and eighty yuan.
我们学校有一千二百个学生。Our school has twelve hundred students.
从这儿到机场有三十公里。It is thirty kilometres from here to the airport.
他一个月挣一万块。He earns ten thousand yuan a month.
我奶奶今年一百零一岁了。My grandmother is a hundred and one this year.
8 more example sentences
我家有四口人。There are four people in my family.
一年有三百六十五天。A year has three hundred and sixty-five days.
这张票九十九块。This ticket is ninety-nine yuan.
我们公司有三百零五个员工。Our company has three hundred and five employees.
这套房子卖两百万。This flat is for sale at two million.
一天有二十四个小时。A day has twenty-four hours.
他跑了一万米。He ran ten thousand metres.
这本书我看了五十页。I have read fifty pages of this book.
Worth knowing (1)
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Shortening a round number
When nothing but zeros follows, speech drops the last place word: 一百五 is 150, not 105, 一千二 is 1,200 and 两万五 is 25,000. The number after the place word is understood to be the next place down. For 105 the 零 is needed, and it is exactly what tells the two apart.
这双鞋一百五。These shoes are a hundred and fifty.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English reaches 10,000 by saying “ten thousand”, so it is natural to try 十 + 千. Chinese never says that: from 10,000 upwards it counts in 万. Ten thousand is 一万, fifty thousand 五万, a hundred thousand 十万.
Group big numbers in fours: ten thousand is one wàn, a million is a hundred wàn.
Your turn
9 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.