中文 — Numbers cheat sheet

The big picture

Mandarin numbers are radically compositional — almost no irregularities. The structural twist is that Chinese groups by ten-thousand (万), not by thousand. So there's no native word for "million": it's 一百万, "one hundred ten-thousands."

If you only remember one thing: the new big unit is 万 (wàn, 10⁴). English commas go every three digits; Chinese mental commas go every four. 10,000 = 1万. 100,000,000 = 1亿.

Zero to ten

These eleven characters are the entire foundation. Learn them, plus 十 for ten, and you can already build 1 to 100.

零

líng

一

yī

→ 两

二

èr

三

sān

四

sì

五

wǔ

六

liù

tone clash w/ 1

七

qī

八

bā

九

jiǔ

十

shí

The strokes match the value. Look at 一 (1, one stroke), 二 (2, two strokes), 三 (3, three strokes). After that the pattern breaks — but the first three are a freebie.

11 – 99: just compose

Compose ten with the digit before or after it. Before 十, you multiply: 三十 = 3×10 = 30. After 十, you add: 十三 = 10+3 = 13. No irregular tens, no special teens — just the rule.

十一

shí yī

十二

shí èr

tones

十四

shí sì

十五

shí wǔ

十九

shí jiǔ

二十

èr shí

二十一

èr shí yī

三十

sān shí

tones

四十

sì shí

四十七

sì shí qī

五十

wǔ shí

七十六

qī shí liù

九十九

jiǔ shí jiǔ

14 vs 40: tones matter. 十四 (shí sì, 14) and 四十 (sì shí, 40) use the same two syllables in reverse, distinguished only by which has the rising tone and which has the falling tone. Cab drivers and taxi meters will not slow down for you. Drill these as a pair.

Hundreds & thousands

百 = 100, 千 = 1000. Same composition rule. Two new wrinkles: 两 (liǎng) replaces 二 (èr) for "two" before 百, 千, 万, 亿. And 零 (líng) fills in skipped place values like a written zero.

100

一百

yī bǎi

两 not 二

200

两百

liǎng bǎi

300

三百

sān bǎi

500

五百

wǔ bǎi

零 placeholder

101

一百零一

yī bǎi líng yī

128

一百二十八

yī bǎi èr shí bā

1,000

一千

yī qiān

两 not 二

2,000

两千

liǎng qiān

5,000

五千

wǔ qiān

1,500

一千五百

yī qiān wǔ bǎi

1×千 + 5×百

3,627

三千六百二十七

sān qiān liù bǎi èr shí qī

3×千 + 6×百 + 2×十 + 7

The 零 placeholder. When a place value is empty in the middle of a number, slot in 零 to keep the structure parseable: 101 = 一百零一, not 一百一. (一百一 would be ambiguous — it could mean 110 in casual speech.)

万 & 亿 — the new units

This is the structural break. After 千, Chinese doesn't reach for "ten thousand" or "million" — it gets new unit words. 万 = 10⁴ and 亿 = 10⁸. Everything in between is built by composing them with the digits and small units you already know.

English groups by 10³

thousand → million → billion

10³thousand

10⁶million

10⁹billion

10¹²trillion

Commas every 3 digits. Each comma = a new unit word.

中文 groups by 10⁴

千 → 万 → 亿

10³千 qiān (thousand)

10⁴万 wàn (ten-thousand)

10⁸亿 yì (hundred-million)

10¹²兆 zhào (trillion)

Mental commas every 4 digits. There's no native word for "million" — it's 一百万 ("one hundred ten-thousands").

10,000

一万

yī wàn

50,000

五万

wǔ wàn

100,000

十万

shí wàn

"million"

1,000,000

一百万

yī bǎi wàn

10,000,000

一千万

yī qiān wàn

10⁸

100,000,000

一亿

yī yì

"billion"

1,000,000,000

十亿

shí yì

43,256

四万三千二百五十六

sì wàn sān qiān èr bǎi wǔ shí liù

4×万 + 3×千 + 2×百 + 5×十 + 6

1,000,000

一百万

yī bǎi wàn

"one hundred ten-thousands" — there's no separate word

Converting big numbers: shift the comma. To say a number like 5,000,000 in Mandarin, mentally re-comma it from 5,000,000 (5 million) to 500,0000 — that's 500 万 = 五百万. The skill is rewiring the place-value chunks; the words themselves are mechanical.

Tones, 两/二, 幺/一

Tones do half the work in spoken Chinese numbers. Two pairs to drill, and one substitution rule to know for phone numbers.

14 / 40

十四 / 四十

shí sì / sì shí

rising-falling vs falling-rising — same syllables, swapped tones

1 vs 7

一 vs 七

yī vs qī — both high-flat tone

in phone & ID numbers, say 幺 (yāo) for 1 to avoid confusion

The 两/二 rule, summarized. Use 二 (èr) for the digit "two" when counting and before 十 (tens). Switch to 两 (liǎng) before larger units — 两百 (200), 两千 (2000), 两万 (20,000), 两亿 (200 million). Inside compounds, 二 still appears in the tens position: 两百二十 = 220, not 两百两十.

Phone numbers: 幺 for 1. Because 一 (yī, 1) and 七 (qī, 7) share the high-flat tone and sound similar over the phone, Chinese speakers substitute 幺 (yāo) for 1 in sequences. A number like 171 might be read yāo qī yāo. You'll hear this constantly in numbers said aloud.

Things to remember

Five rules that will save you from the most common mistakes.

Group by ten-thousand. The big mental shift: 万 = 10⁴ is the next unit after 千, and 亿 = 10⁸ after that. There's no separate word for "million."

Compose, don't memorize. Almost nothing is irregular. 47 = four-ten-seven, 3,627 = three-thousand-six-hundred-two-ten-seven. Once you have 0–10 and the unit words, you can build anything.

两 for "two" before big units. 200 = 两百, 2,000 = 两千, 20,000 = 两万. But the tens position still uses 二 — 20 = 二十.

零 for skipped places. 101 = 一百零一, not 一百一. The 零 marks the empty tens slot.

Tones do half the work. shí sì (14) vs sì shí (40) are the canonical drill pair. And in phone numbers, swap 一 for 幺 (yāo) to disambiguate from 七.

Drill it

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