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Numbers in Chinese: The Most Logical System You Will Ever Learn

Chinese grammar is unfamiliar, the tones are demanding, the characters take years. The numbers are the single most logical system in any major language. Ten words get you to ninety-nine, with zero exceptions. No eleven, no twelve, no thirty, none of the irregular debris English carries.

This is the complete reference: the full 1 to 100 table with native audio, the two real traps (liǎng and wàn), big numbers to the trillion, ordinals, fractions, the hand signs that let you buy things without speaking, and why a phone number full of eights costs real money. Bookmark it and you will not need another page.

The short answer: 1 is 一, 10 is 十, 100 is 一百, 1000 is 一千, and 10,000 is 一万. Now the detail.

Chinese Numbers 1 to 100 (Complete Table)

Tap any number to hear a native voice.

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1 to 20

# Chinese Pinyin # Chinese Pinyin
1 一 yī 11 十一 shí yī
2 二 èr 12 十二 shí èr
3 三 sān 13 十三 shí sān
4 四 sì 14 十四 shí sì
5 五 wǔ 15 十五 shí wǔ
6 六 liù 16 十六 shí liù
7 七 qī 17 十七 shí qī
8 八 bā 18 十八 shí bā
9 九 jiǔ 19 十九 shí jiǔ
10 十 shí 20 二十 èr shí

21 to 40

# Chinese Pinyin # Chinese Pinyin
21 二十一 èr shí yī 31 三十一 sān shí yī
22 二十二 èr shí èr 32 三十二 sān shí èr
23 二十三 èr shí sān 33 三十三 sān shí sān
24 二十四 èr shí sì 34 三十四 sān shí sì
25 二十五 èr shí wǔ 35 三十五 sān shí wǔ
26 二十六 èr shí liù 36 三十六 sān shí liù
27 二十七 èr shí qī 37 三十七 sān shí qī
28 二十八 èr shí bā 38 三十八 sān shí bā
29 二十九 èr shí jiǔ 39 三十九 sān shí jiǔ
30 三十 sān shí 40 四十 sì shí

41 to 60

# Chinese Pinyin # Chinese Pinyin
41 四十一 sì shí yī 51 五十一 wǔ shí yī
42 四十二 sì shí èr 52 五十二 wǔ shí èr
43 四十三 sì shí sān 53 五十三 wǔ shí sān
44 四十四 sì shí sì 54 五十四 wǔ shí sì
45 四十五 sì shí wǔ 55 五十五 wǔ shí wǔ
46 四十六 sì shí liù 56 五十六 wǔ shí liù
47 四十七 sì shí qī 57 五十七 wǔ shí qī
48 四十八 sì shí bā 58 五十八 wǔ shí bā
49 四十九 sì shí jiǔ 59 五十九 wǔ shí jiǔ
50 五十 wǔ shí 60 六十 liù shí

61 to 80

# Chinese Pinyin # Chinese Pinyin
61 六十一 liù shí yī 71 七十一 qī shí yī
62 六十二 liù shí èr 72 七十二 qī shí èr
63 六十三 liù shí sān 73 七十三 qī shí sān
64 六十四 liù shí sì 74 七十四 qī shí sì
65 六十五 liù shí wǔ 75 七十五 qī shí wǔ
66 六十六 liù shí liù 76 七十六 qī shí liù
67 六十七 liù shí qī 77 七十七 qī shí qī
68 六十八 liù shí bā 78 七十八 qī shí bā
69 六十九 liù shí jiǔ 79 七十九 qī shí jiǔ
70 七十 qī shí 80 八十 bā shí

81 to 100

# Chinese Pinyin # Chinese Pinyin
81 八十一 bā shí yī 91 九十一 jiǔ shí yī
82 八十二 bā shí èr 92 九十二 jiǔ shí èr
83 八十三 bā shí sān 93 九十三 jiǔ shí sān
84 八十四 bā shí sì 94 九十四 jiǔ shí sì
85 八十五 bā shí wǔ 95 九十五 jiǔ shí wǔ
86 八十六 bā shí liù 96 九十六 jiǔ shí liù
87 八十七 bā shí qī 97 九十七 jiǔ shí qī
88 八十八 bā shí bā 98 九十八 jiǔ shí bā
89 八十九 bā shí jiǔ 99 九十九 jiǔ shí jiǔ
90 九十 jiǔ shí 100 一百 yī bǎi

The Rule That Builds Everything

Chinese numbers are arithmetic said out loud. Ten is the hinge: what comes before multiplies it, what comes after adds to it.

  • 11 = 十一 = shí yī (ten one)
  • 20 = 二十 = èr shí (two ten)
  • 47 = 四十七 = sì shí qī (four ten seven)
  • 99 = 九十九 = jiǔ shí jiǔ (nine ten nine)

That is the whole rule. There is no word to learn for "thirty" or "forty". Notice too that 一, 二, 三 are literally one, two and three strokes: the system tells you what it is.

Trap 1: Two Is Two Different Words

This is the one real irregularity, and it matters daily.

  • 二 èr is the number two: counting, phone numbers, maths, dates. Èr shí (20).
  • 两 liǎng is "two of something", used before a measure word. Two beers is 两杯啤酒 liǎng bēi píjiǔ, never èr bēi píjiǔ.

Counting out loud in the abstract, èr. Two actual objects in front of you, liǎng. Getting this wrong is the most common numeric error learners make, and it is instantly audible.

Also note: 200 is 两百 liǎng bǎi, not èr bǎi. But 20 stays èr shí. Of course it does.

Trap 2: Big Numbers Group by Ten Thousand

English groups digits in threes: thousand, million, billion. Chinese groups in fours, with a dedicated word for ten thousand.

Value Chinese Pinyin English
100 一百 yī bǎi hundred
1 000 一千 yī qiān thousand
10 000 一万 yī wàn ten thousand
100 000 十万 shí wàn hundred thousand
1 000 000 一百万 yī bǎi wàn million
10 000 000 一千万 yī qiān wàn ten million
100 000 000 一亿 yī yì hundred million
10¹² 一兆 yī zhào trillion

So a million is "a hundred ten-thousands". Every learner stalls here, and converting quickly between the two systems stays effortful long after the rest is fluent. Chinese speakers doing business in English hit the same wall in reverse.

One more wrinkle: zero is a placeholder you must say. 105 is 一百零五 yī bǎi líng wǔ, "one hundred zero five". Skip the líng and you have said 150.

Measure Words

Like Japanese, Chinese cannot count a noun bare. The number needs a measure word:

Measure word Used for Example
个 gè the universal fallback, generic objects sān gè rén, three people
杯 bēi cups, glasses liǎng bēi chá
本 běn books yī běn shū
只 zhī animals sān zhī māo
辆 liàng vehicles yī liàng chē
张 zhāng flat things: tickets, tables, paper liǎng zhāng piào
件 jiàn clothes, matters yī jiàn yīfu
口 kǒu family members wǔ kǒu rén

The good news, and it is genuinely good: 个 works for almost everything. Use it when you are unsure and you will be understood every time. Chinese is far more forgiving here than Japanese.

Ordinal Numbers

Mercifully simple: put 第 dì in front of the number.

Chinese Pinyin
1st 第一 dì yī
2nd 第二 dì èr
3rd 第三 dì sān
10th 第十 dì shí
100th 第一百 dì yī bǎi

That is it. No irregular forms, no agreement, nothing. 第一 also means "first" in the sense of best. Note that after 第 you use èr, not liǎng: dì èr gè.

Fractions, Decimals and Percentages

Concept Chinese Pinyin
1/2 二分之一 èr fēn zhī yī
1/3 三分之一 sān fēn zhī yī
3/4 四分之三 sì fēn zhī sān
half 一半 yī bàn
0.5 零点五 líng diǎn wǔ
3.14 三点一四 sān diǎn yī sì
50% 百分之五十 bǎi fēn zhī wǔshí

Fractions and percentages run backwards to English: sì fēn zhī sān is "of four parts, three". The denominator comes first. Percent is literally "of a hundred parts, fifty". The decimal point is 点 diǎn.

Pronunciation: What the Pinyin Hides

Three details do most of the work.

一 changes tone depending on what follows. Alone or at the end it is yī (first tone). Before a fourth tone it becomes yí: yí gè. Before other tones it becomes yì: yì bēi. Natives do this without thinking. Pinyin usually writes yī and leaves you to find the rest by ear.

Third tones in a row change. Jiǔ (9) plus jiǔ (9) does not come out as two identical falling-rising tones: the first shifts to a second tone. The same sandhi as in nǐ hǎo.

Four and ten are the ones you will mishear. Sì (4) and shí (10) are close enough that even natives clarify in noisy markets. Southern accents blur sh into s, which makes 4, 10, 14 and 40 a permanent listening challenge, not a beginner problem you outgrow.

This is exactly where written guides run out of road. Pinyin can print a tone mark, but it cannot put the melody in your mouth, and it will never teach you to tell sì from shí shouted across a stall. The only fix is to hear a native say the whole number, then say it back out loud, several times, until it stops being decoding. That listen and repeat loop is called shadowing, and for a tonal language it is the entire game. It is how the Hyperpolyglot app handles every phrase: real sentences, native audio, looped until they come out automatically. Available on iOS, Android, and Web.

Lucky 8, Cursed 4

Numbers in Chinese carry weight that has nothing to do with maths.

  • 八 bā (8) sounds close to 发 fā, "to prosper". It is the lucky number, and it is priced accordingly: phone numbers and licence plates full of eights sell for real money. The Beijing Olympics opened on 08/08/08 at 8:08 pm. This was not a coincidence.
  • 四 sì (4) sounds like 死 sǐ, "death". Buildings skip the 4th floor, and the 14th, and the 24th. A lift panel in Hong Kong can jump from 3 to 5.
  • 六 liù (6) suggests 流, "flowing", things going smoothly. 666 in China is a compliment, roughly "awesome", which surprises Western visitors badly.
  • 九 jiǔ (9) sounds like 久, "long lasting", so it belongs to weddings and emperors. The Forbidden City was said to have 9,999 rooms.
  • 二 èr (2) as slang means someone is a bit stupid. But 五二零 (520) sounds like wǒ ài nǐ, "I love you", so 20 May is an internet romance day.
  • 一 repeated: 11.11 (Singles' Day) is the largest shopping event on Earth, built entirely on the four lonely ones in the date.

This is not folklore you can safely ignore. It shapes prices, addresses, gifts and marketing.

Bonus: Count to Ten on One Hand

Chinese has hand signs for 1 through 10 on a single hand, genuinely useful in a loud market where your tones fail you.

  • 1 to 5: fingers extended, as you would expect.
  • 6: thumb and little finger out, like a phone handset.
  • 7: fingertips pinched together.
  • 8: thumb and index at right angles, like a gun.
  • 9: index finger curled into a hook.
  • 10: two crossed index fingers, or a closed fist.

Learn 6, 8 and 10 and you can negotiate a price without saying a word or risking a tone.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  1. Using èr for two objects. It is liǎng bēi, not èr bēi. The most frequent error by far.
  2. Grouping big numbers by thousands. A million is yī bǎi wàn, a hundred ten-thousands.
  3. Skipping the zero. 105 is yī bǎi líng wǔ. Without líng you have said 150.
  4. Reading tones straight off the page. Yī shifts constantly, and third tones in a row change.
  5. Counting a noun bare. Sān rén needs a measure word: sān gè rén.
  6. Ignoring 4 and 8. Giving four of anything, or picking a flat on the 4th floor, sends a message you did not intend.
  7. Assuming you will hear sì versus shí. Even natives ask twice. Learn the hand signs.

The Numbers You Will Actually Use First

  • Price: 多少钱? duōshao qián, "how much?"
  • Ordering: 两个 liǎng gè, "two of them".
  • People: 三个人 sān gè rén, "three people", walking into a restaurant.
  • Age: 我三十岁 wǒ sānshí suì, "I'm thirty".
  • Phone numbers: read digit by digit, and 1 becomes 幺 yāo to avoid confusion with 七 qī. This surprises everyone.

Learn yī to shí, learn the ten-hinge rule, keep liǎng and wàn on a sticky note. Drill them with real audio until they arrive as sounds rather than sums, and you will find that the hardest major language for English speakers has the easiest numbers in the world.

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