Let's Learn Chinese Numbers!

Numbers in Chinese follow simple patterns of repetition, but they do possess a different
logic from English that takes some time to get used to it .

零 líng (zero)
一 yī (one)
二 èr (two)
三 sān (three)
四 sì (four)
五 wǔ (five)
六 liù (six)
七 qī (seven)
八 bā (eight)
九 jiǔ (nine)
十 shí (ten)

Larger Numbers
十一 shí yī (eleven)
十二 shí èr (twelve)

二十一 èr shí yī (twenty-one)

二十二 èr shí èr (twenty-two)

一百 yī bǎi (one hundred)

一百零一 yī bǎi líng yī (one hundred one)
一百五十八 yī bǎi wǔ shí bā (one hundred fifty eight)
二百三十 èr bǎi sān shí (two hundred thirty)

一千 yī qiān (one thousand)

七千二百五十三 qī qiān liǎng bǎi wǔ shí sān (seven thousand two hundred fifty-three)

What is different from American English is that when you get to ten-thousand, Chinese
has its own word 万(wàn), unlike English where you must use a compound of ten and
thousand. For example, ten thousand in Chinese is pronounced as "yí wàn".

一万 yí wàn (one myriad or ten thousand)

四万三千 sì wàn sān qiān (forty-three thousand)

The Use of Zero in Chinese

If a number ends in zero, there is no need to include the Chinese character for zero. For
example:
350: 三百五十
1350: 一千三百五十
1600: 一千六百

However, if the zero character does not end the number (i.e., it is followed by a non-
zero character), it is necessary to include the zero character, while the "tens-place"
characters are dropped. For example,

305: 三百零五 (not 三百零十五)

1035: 一千零三十五 (not 一千零百三十五)
Please note that the "十" in the first example and the "百" in the second example are
dropped.

If a zero digit is followed by one or more zero digits, only one zero character is need.
For example,

1006: 一千零六 (not一千零零六)

300,250: 三十万零二百五十
8,000,300:八百万零三百