How do you count to 10 in Chinese?

一 (yī) 1, 二 (èr) 2, 三 (sān) 3, 四 (sì) 4, 五 (wǔ) 5, 六 (liù) 6, 七 (qī) 7, 八 (bā) 8, 九 (jiǔ) 9, 十 (shí) 10. Zero is 零 (líng). These eleven characters build every other number.

How do you say 100, 1000, and 10,000 in Chinese?

100 is 一百 (yì bǎi), 1,000 is 一千 (yì qiān), and 10,000 is 一万 (yí wàn). Note that 一 shifts tone before each unit: yì before 百 and 千, yí before the fourth-tone 万.

When do you use 两 instead of 二?

Use 两 (liǎng) before a measure word and before 百/千/万 — 两个 (two of something), 两百 (200), 两千 (2,000). Use 二 (èr) for counting out loud, inside the teens and tens (十二 12, 二十 20), and in ordinals (第二 second).

Why is 10,000 a single word (万) in Chinese?

Chinese groups large numbers every four digits, not every three. 10⁴ has its own unit, 万 (wàn), and 10⁸ has another, 亿 (yì). So there is no “thousand-thousand”: a million is counted as a hundred 万 — 一百万.

Chinese numbers · 数字

Numbers in Chinese

Chinese numbers are one of the most regular systems in any language. Learn the characters for zero to ten and you can already build every number up to ninety-nine — no irregular “eleven” or “twelve” to memorise.

This is the full reference: how to count from 1 to 10, how the tens and hundreds are put together, the one big trap that catches every learner (Chinese counts in ten-thousands, not thousands), and the details — 两 vs 二, money, phone numbers — that textbooks rush past. Every number comes with pinyin.

The foundation

Chinese numbers 1 to 10 (and zero)

These eleven characters are the whole system. Read them across, top row first — the numeral sits in the corner of each square, the pinyin below.

0零líng

1一yī

2二èr

3三sān

4四sì

5五wǔ

6六liù

7七qī

8八bā

9九jiǔ

10十shí

A few worth flagging: 四 (sì, 4) and 十 (shí, 10) sound alike to a beginner but the tones and initials differ — drill them together. 二 (èr, 2) is the counting “two”; a second word, 两 (liǎng), shows up the moment you count objects — more on that below.

Counting up

11 to 99: everything hinges on 十

十 (shí) means ten and does all the work. The teens are ten-plus-a-digit, the tens are a-digit-times-ten, and the numbers in between just spell out both.

Building Chinese numbers from 11 to 99
Number	Chinese	Pinyin	How it’s built
11	十一	shí yī	ten + one
19	十九	shí jiǔ	ten + nine
20	二十	èr shí	two × ten
21	二十一	èr shí yī	two × ten, then + one
99	九十九	jiǔ shí jiǔ	nine × ten, then + nine

The pattern never breaks. 47 is 四十七 (sì shí qī) — literally “four-ten-seven”. Once ten is the hinge, you can say any number below a hundred without learning a single new word.

Big numbers

Hundreds, thousands, and the 万 trap

This is the one thing learners get wrong. English groups big numbers every three digits — thousand, million, billion. Chinese groups them every four.

One million, grouped two ways

English — commas every 3

1,000,000

= one million

Chinese — a break every 4

100·0000

= a hundred 万 (wàn) = 一百万

The large units and the powers of ten they name
Character	Pinyin	Power	Value	In English
百	bǎi	10²	100	hundred
千	qiān	10³	1,000	thousand
万	wàn	10⁴	10,000	ten thousand
亿	yì	10⁸	100,000,000	hundred million

Notice the jump: after 千 (qiān, 1,000) the next named unit is 万 (wàn, 10,000), not “ten thousand” built from smaller words. From there, bigger numbers are counted in 万 until you reach 亿 (yì) at 10⁸. So a million isn’t its own word — it’s a hundred 万.

Worked large numbers
Number	Chinese	Pinyin	What it literally is
10,000	一万	yí wàn	one wàn (10⁴)
100,000	十万	shí wàn	ten wàn — ten “ten-thousands”
1,000,000	一百万	yì bǎi wàn	a hundred wàn — not a “thousand-thousand”
100,000,000	一亿	yí yì	one yì — that is 10⁴ × 10⁴

Two ways to say two

两 or 二?

Chinese has two words for “two”, and they aren’t interchangeable. The rule is about position, not meaning.

Use 两 (liǎng)

Before a measure word, and before 百 / 千 / 万 — that is, when two of something is being quantified.

两个liǎng gètwo of something
两百liǎng bǎi200
两千liǎng qiān2,000
两万liǎng wàn20,000

Use 二 (èr)

For counting out loud, inside the teens and tens, and for ordinals — the “abstract” two.

二èrtwo, said when counting out loud
十二shí èr12
二十èr shí20
第二dì èrsecond (ordinal)

200 is the one spot people hesitate: 两百 (liǎng bǎi) is the everyday choice, though 二百 (èr bǎi) is also correct and common in the north. Inside a longer number the tens and units always take 二: 22 is 二十二 (èr shí èr).

The zero placeholder

零 inside a number

When a number has an empty place in the middle — no tens, no hundreds — you say 零 (líng) to mark the gap, so the listener doesn’t lose track of the place values.

Reading a zero inside a number
Number	Chinese	Pinyin	How it’s read
105	一百零五	yì bǎi líng wǔ	“hundred, líng, five” — líng marks the empty tens place
1,001	一千零一	yì qiān líng yī	“thousand, líng, one” — one líng covers all the empty middle places

Two rules keep it simple. You say 零 only once no matter how many zeros are in a row (1,001 uses a single 零), and never for a trailing zero — 1,200 is 一千二百 (yì qiān èr bǎi), with no 零 at the end.

First, second, third

Ordinals: just add 第

To turn a counting number into an ordinal, put 第 (dì) in front of it. That’s the whole rule — it works for any number.

第一dì yīfirst

第二dì èrsecond

第三dì sānthird

The same prefix names the days and months: 星期一 is Monday (“weekday one”) and 一月 is January (“month one”) — no 第 needed there, since the bare number already does the job.

Money out loud

Prices: 块 and 毛 in speech

Chinese money has a formal written register and a casual spoken one. On the price tag you’ll see the formal units; out loud, almost everyone uses the spoken ones.

Chinese currency units, written and spoken
Written	Spoken	Value	Notes
元yuán	块kuài	1 yuan	The main unit. Kuài is what people say out loud; yuán is what’s printed on the note and the price tag.
角jiǎo	毛máo	0.1 yuan	A tenth of a yuan — a “dime”. Almost always said as máo.
分fēn	分fēn	0.01 yuan	A hundredth — a “cent”. Same word written or spoken, and barely used now.

So ¥2.50 spoken is 两块五 (liǎng kuài wǔ) — note the 两 for the leading “two”, and that the trailing unit (毛) is usually dropped once context is clear.

Saying numbers aloud

Phone numbers, and the 幺 for one

A couple of spoken habits that never show up in a beginner textbook but come up the first week you’re in China.

Phone numbers use 幺 (yāo) for 1

Read aloud digit by digit, 一 (yī) sounds too much like 七 (qī, 7) down a crackly line, so 1 is spoken 幺 (yāo) instead. A number ending 138… is read “yāo sān bā…”. The emergency line 110 is “yāo yāo líng”.

6 to 10 on one hand

Chinese finger counting fits 1–10 on a single hand. 6 is thumb and little finger out (a “call me” shape); 7 pinches all five fingertips together; 8 is thumb and index as an L, like a gun; 9 is a hooked index finger; 10 is a fist, or two index fingers crossed. Handy at a loud market when you can’t hear the price.

Practice

Write these three out

Cover the answers and say each in Chinese first. They fold in everything above — the four-digit grouping, the zero placeholder, and 两.

2,024两千零二十四liǎng qiān líng èr shí sìTwo thousand, líng to fill the empty hundreds place, then twenty-four.

15,000一万五千yí wàn wǔ qiānGroup by wàn: one wàn plus five qiān.

1,300,000一百三十万yì bǎi sān shí wàn1.3 million is 130 万 — a hundred-and-thirty “ten-thousands”.

FAQ

Questions people ask

How do you count to 10 in Chinese?: 一 (yī) 1, 二 (èr) 2, 三 (sān) 3, 四 (sì) 4, 五 (wǔ) 5, 六 (liù) 6, 七 (qī) 7, 八 (bā) 8, 九 (jiǔ) 9, 十 (shí) 10. Zero is 零 (líng). These eleven characters build every other number.
How do you say 100, 1000, and 10,000 in Chinese?: 100 is 一百 (yì bǎi), 1,000 is 一千 (yì qiān), and 10,000 is 一万 (yí wàn). Note that 一 shifts tone before each unit: yì before 百 and 千, yí before the fourth-tone 万.
When do you use 两 instead of 二?: Use 两 (liǎng) before a measure word and before 百/千/万 — 两个 (two of something), 两百 (200), 两千 (2,000). Use 二 (èr) for counting out loud, inside the teens and tens (十二 12, 二十 20), and in ordinals (第二 second).
Why is 10,000 a single word (万) in Chinese?: Chinese groups large numbers every four digits, not every three. 10⁴ has its own unit, 万 (wàn), and 10⁸ has another, 亿 (yì). So there is no “thousand-thousand”: a million is counted as a hundred 万 — 一百万.

Keep going with the words behind the numbers: the HSK 1 word list.