In this lesson, you will learn the Chinese number system. The Chinese number system is also a base-10 system like the Roman number system. However, the main difference is the way numbers are represented. In the following tables, the first column is the Roman writing of the number, the second column is the Chinese writing, and the third column is the Pinyin version shown along with the corresponding tone indicated by 1, 2, 3, or 4. For example, “ling2″ means pronounce “ling” with the second Mandarin tone (rising tone). Please review Lesson #1 to familiarize yourself with the four tones. To help with you pronunciation, please listen and follow-along to the audio for each table.
Chinese Numbers 0 to 10
| Chinese | Pinyin | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 零 / 〇 | ling2 |
| 1 | 一 | yi1 |
| 2 | 二/两 | er4/liang3 |
| 3 | 三 | san1 |
| 4 | 四 | si4 |
| 5 | 五 | wu3 |
| 6 | 六 | liu4 |
| 7 | 七 | qi1 |
| 8 | 八 | ba1 |
| 9 | 九 | jiu3 |
| 10 | 十 | shi2 |
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chinese Numbers 11 to 29
| Chinese | Pinyin | |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | 十一 | shi2yi1 |
| 12 | 十二 | shi2er2 |
| 13 | 十三 | shi2san1 |
| 14 | 十四 | shi2si4 |
| 15 | 十五 | shi2wu3 |
| 16 | 十六 | shi2liu4 |
| 17 | 十七 | shi2qi1 |
| 18 | 十八 | shi2ba1 |
| 19 | 十九 | shíjiu3 |
| 20 | 二十 | er4shi2 |
| 21 | 二十一 | er4shi2yi1 |
| 22 | 二十二 | er4shi2er2 |
| 23 | 二十三 | er4shi2san1 |
| 24 | 二十四 | er4shi2si4 |
| 25 | 二十五 | er4shi2wu3 |
| 26 | 二十六 | er4shi2liu4 |
| 27 | 二十七 | er4shi2qi1 |
| 28 | 二十八 | er4shi2ba1 |
| 29 | 二十九 | er4shi2jiu3 |
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chinese Numbers 30 to 90
| Chinese | Pinyin | |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 三十 | san1shi2 |
| 40 | 四十 | si4shi2 |
| 50 | 五十 | wu3shi2 |
| 60 | 六十 | liu4shi2 |
| 70 | 七十 | qi1shi2 |
| 80 | 八十 | ba1shi2 |
| 90 | 九十 | jiu3shi2 |
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chinese Numbers 100 to 300
| Chinese | Pinyin | |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 一百 | yi4bai3 |
| 101 | 一百零一 | yi4bai3 ling2 yi1 |
| 110 | 一百一十 | yi4bai3 yi1shi2 |
| 111 | 一百一十一 | yi4bai3 yi1shi2 yi1 |
| 120 | 一百二十 | yi4bai3 er4shi2 |
| 200 | 二百 | er4bai3 |
| 300 | 三百 | san1bai3 |
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Chinese Numbers 1,000 to 100,000,000
| Chinese | Pinyin | |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 一千 | yi4qian1 |
| 10,000 | 一万 | yi2wan4 |
| 20,000 | 二万 | er4wan4 |
| 100,000 | 十万 | shi2wan4 |
| 1,000,000 | 一百万 | yi1 bai3wan4 |
| 10,000,000 | 一千万 | yi1 qian1wan4 |
| 100,000,000 | 一亿 | yi2 yi4 |
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Mandarin has a unit for 10,000, “wan4”, for example: 10,000 is “yi2 wan4” (literally one x 10,000) and 100,000 is “shi2 wan4” (literally 10 x 10,000).
Note also there are two words for “2”. In a counting sequence (1-2-3-4-5…) use “er4”. However, when referring to two objects, two people, etc. use “liang3”. For example, “two tickets” is “liang3 (two) zhang1 (pieces) piao4 (ticket.)”
Mandarin uses counting or measure words between the number and the noun. For example, one ticket is “yi4 zhang1 piao4” where zhang3 is the measure word for “ticket”; “two horses” is “liang3 pi2 ma3” where “pi2” is the measure word for “horses”. There are a great number of measure words, the use of which depends on the type of object being talked about. A general measure word is “ge4, 个” which, while not always technically correct, can be used in most contexts.
Recent Comments