Chinese Numbers: 1-10, 1-100 and Beyond with Characters and Pinyin

Chinese numbers 1 to 10 are 一 (yī), 二 (èr), 三 (sān), 四 (sì), 五 (wǔ), 六 (liù), 七 (qī), 八 (bā), 九 (jiǔ) and 十 (shí), and zero is 零 (líng). Every bigger number is built from these characters plus 百 (bǎi, hundred), 千 (qiān, thousand), 万 (wàn, ten thousand) and 亿 (yì, hundred million), so once you know the pattern you can count to 100 and far beyond.

Number	Character	Pinyin	Sound hint
0	零	líng	rhymes with "sing", rising
1	一	yī	"ee" as in "see", high and level
2	二	èr	like "are" with the tongue curled back, falling
3	三	sān	"sahn", high and level
4	四	sì	"s" plus a short buzzing "z", falling; not "see"
5	五	wǔ	"woo", dipping low
6	六	liù	"lyoh", falling
7	七	qī	"chee", high and level
8	八	bā	"bah", high and level
9	九	jiǔ	"jyoh", dipping low
10	十	shí	"shr", rising; not "she"

The sound hints are rough guides only, because the tone is part of each word. 四 (sì, four) and 十 (shí, ten) are the classic pair beginners mix up: they start with different sounds and have different tones. If tone marks are new to you, keep our Chinese tones chart open while you practice.

All eleven words above are HSK 1 vocabulary in the New HSK 3.0 word lists, and so are 百, 两 and 第. 千, 万 and 亿 follow at HSK 2.

A note on pinyin in this guide: 一 changes its tone depending on the word after it. Dictionaries write it yī, but the pinyin below shows the tone you actually say, such as yí ge and yìbǎi. The section on the tone of 一 explains why.

Chinese Numbers 11 to 99

Counting in Chinese from 11 to 99 follows one rule: say the tens digit, then 十, then the units digit. There is nothing new to memorize.

11 to 19: 十 + units. 十一 (shíyī) is "ten one", 十九 (shíjiǔ) is "ten nine".
Round tens: digit + 十. 二十 (èrshí) is "two ten", 九十 (jiǔshí) is "nine ten".
Everything else: digit + 十 + digit. 三十五 (sānshíwǔ) is "three ten five".

Number	Chinese	Pinyin
11	十一	shíyī
12	十二	shí'èr
15	十五	shíwǔ
20	二十	èrshí
21	二十一	èrshíyī
30	三十	sānshí
35	三十五	sānshíwǔ
40	四十	sìshí
48	四十八	sìshíbā
50	五十	wǔshí
60	六十	liùshí
66	六十六	liùshíliù
70	七十	qīshí
80	八十	bāshí
90	九十	jiǔshí
99	九十九	jiǔshíjiǔ

Two small things to watch:

Say 十, not 一十, for 10 to 19. 十五 is fifteen. You only hear 一十 inside longer numbers, as in 110 below.
14 and 40 are easy to confuse. 十四 (shísì) and 四十 (sìshí) use the same two syllables in reverse order. The old tongue twister 四是四，十是十 (sì shì sì, shí shì shí: four is four, ten is ten) is good practice.

The apostrophe in shí'èr only shows where one syllable ends and the next begins.

100 and Up: 百, 千 and the Rules for Zero

For hundreds and thousands, put the digit before 百 or 千. Unlike 十, they always need a digit in front, so 100 is 一百 (yìbǎi), never just 百.

Number	Chinese	Pinyin
100	一百	yìbǎi
101	一百零一	yìbǎi líng yī
110	一百一十	yìbǎi yìshí
150	一百五十	yìbǎi wǔshí
999	九百九十九	jiǔbǎi jiǔshíjiǔ
1,000	一千	yìqiān
1,005	一千零五	yìqiān líng wǔ
1,050	一千零五十	yìqiān líng wǔshí
2,026	两千零二十六	liǎngqiān líng èrshíliù

Three rules cover almost everything:

A gap inside a number becomes one 零. 101 is 一百零一, and 1,005 is 一千零五. One 零 is enough even when two digits are zero.
Zeros at the end are not spoken. 1,500 is 一千五百 (yìqiān wǔbǎi), with no 零.
Inside a longer number, ten is 一十. 110 is 一百一十, not 一百十.

In everyday speech, people often drop the last unit when it is obvious. 一百五 (yìbǎi wǔ) means 150, not 105, and 两千三 (liǎngqiān sān) means 2,300. If you mean 105, you must say 一百零五.

Big Numbers in Chinese: 万 and 亿

English groups big numbers in threes: thousand, million, billion. Chinese groups them in fours. 万 (wàn) is 10,000 and 亿 (yì) is 100,000,000, and everything in between is counted in 万. This is the part that takes the most practice.

Number	Chinese	Pinyin	Literally
10,000	一万	yíwàn	one wàn
20,000	两万	liǎngwàn	two wàn
100,000	十万	shíwàn	ten wàn
1,000,000	一百万	yìbǎi wàn	one hundred wàn
10,000,000	一千万	yìqiān wàn	one thousand wàn
100,000,000	一亿	yíyì	one yì
1,000,000,000	十亿	shíyì	ten yì

A simple trick: rewrite the number with a separator every four digits from the right, then read each group.

25,000 → 2,5000 → 两万五千 (liǎngwàn wǔqiān), or 两万五 in speech
380,000 → 38,0000 → 三十八万 (sānshíbā wàn)
1,234,567 → 123,4567 → 一百二十三万四千五百六十七 (yìbǎi èrshísān wàn sìqiān wǔbǎi liùshíqī)

So "a million" is 一百万 and "a billion" is 十亿. You will meet 万 all the time: in salaries, flat and car prices, and population figures in the news.

二 vs 两: Two Ways to Say "Two"

Chinese has two words for two. 二 (èr) is the number itself. 两 (liǎng) means "two of something" and goes before a measure word.

Situation	Use	Example
Counting, math, single digits	二	一、二、三 (yī, èr, sān)
Inside numbers like 12, 20, 32	二	十二 (shí'èr), 二十 (èrshí), 三十二 (sānshí'èr)
Ordinals	二	第二 (dì-èr), second
Months and dates	二	二月 (èryuè), February; 二号 (èr hào), the 2nd
Before a measure word	两	两个人 (liǎng ge rén), two people
Clock time	两	两点 (liǎng diǎn), two o'clock
Before 千, 万, 亿	usually 两	两千 (liǎngqiān), 两万 (liǎngwàn)
Before 百	both are heard	两百 (liǎngbǎi) or 二百 (èrbǎi)

两 only replaces a two that stands alone before the measure word. Inside bigger numbers the twos stay 二: twelve people is 十二个人 (shí'èr ge rén), never 十两个人, and 22 people is 二十二个人 (èrshí'èr ge rén). Our guide to Chinese measure words has more examples of 两 with measure words.

幺 (yāo): "One" in Phone Numbers and Room Numbers

When people read out a string of digits, such as a phone number or a room number, they say each digit separately. In mainland China, 1 is then often said 幺 (yāo) instead of 一 (yī). The reason is clarity: yī and qī (seven) are easy to mishear, especially on the phone.

Written	Said	Pinyin
Room 101	幺零幺	yāo líng yāo
Room 312	三幺二	sān yāo èr
110 (police)	幺幺零	yāo yāo líng
119 (fire)	幺幺九	yāo yāo jiǔ
120 (ambulance)	幺二零	yāo èr líng

A few things to remember:

幺 is a spoken habit. You still write the digits.
It is only for digits read one by one. Eleven is still 十一 (shíyī), and 100 yuan is still 一百块 (yìbǎi kuài).
In a digit string, 2 stays 二 (èr), not 两, and 0 is 零 (líng).
Yī is not wrong. Years are usually read with yī, for example 1998 as yī jiǔ jiǔ bā.

To ask for someone's number, say 你的电话号码是多少？ (Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshao?), "What's your phone number?"

The Tone of 一 in Counting and in Words

一 is the one number whose tone changes with its position. You say yī when counting, but in many words it becomes yí or yì.

When 一 is...	Say	Examples
Counted, read as a digit, last in a number, or an ordinal	yī (1st tone)	一、二、三; 十一 (shíyī); 第一 (dì-yī); 一月 (yīyuè), January
Before a 4th tone, including 个	yí (2nd tone)	一个 (yí ge); 一块 (yí kuài); 一万 (yíwàn); 一样 (yíyàng), the same
Before a 1st, 2nd or 3rd tone	yì (4th tone)	一千 (yìqiān); 一年 (yì nián); 一百 (yìbǎi); 一起 (yìqǐ), together
Between a doubled verb	yi (neutral)	看一看 (kàn yi kàn), have a look

个 is usually said with a light, neutral tone, but its own tone is the fourth, so 一个 is yí ge.

Watch the pairs where the meaning changes with the tone:

一月 (yīyuè) is January, but 一个月 (yí ge yuè) is one month.
一号 (yī hào) is the 1st of the month, but 一天 (yì tiān) is one day.

The idea in short: when 一 is a label or a position, keep yī. When it means "one of something", it changes. 不 (bù) follows similar rules, and both are explained with more examples in our Chinese tones chart.

Ordinal Numbers with 第

To turn a number into "first", "second" or "third", put 第 (dì) in front: 第一 (dì-yī), first; 第二 (dì-èr), second; 第十 (dì-shí), tenth. Then add a measure word and a noun:

第一次 (dì-yī cì): the first time
第二天 (dì-èr tiān): the next day; the second day
第三课 (dì-sān kè): Lesson 3
第一名 (dì-yī míng): first place

第二 always keeps 二, even before a measure word: 第二个 (dì-èr ge), the second one.

Many everyday labels skip 第 and put the number straight before the noun. The number then works as a name, not an amount:

三楼 (sān lóu): floor 3
二年级 (èr niánjí): second grade; second year
五月 (wǔyuè): May
302 房间 (sān líng èr fángjiān): room 302

Dates in Chinese

Chinese dates go from the biggest unit to the smallest: year, month, day, then the day of the week.

Year: read each digit, then add 年 (nián). 2026年 is 二〇二六年 (èr líng èr liù nián). The small circle 〇 is read líng.
Month: number + 月 (yuè). 十月 (shíyuè) is October.
Day: number + 号 (hào) in speech, or 日 (rì) in writing. 二十五号 (èrshíwǔ hào) is the 25th.

So 25 October 2026 is written 2026年10月25日 and said 二〇二六年十月二十五号 (èr líng èr liù nián shíyuè èrshíwǔ hào).

The days of the week are 星期 (xīngqī, week) plus a number, starting with Monday:

Day	Chinese	Pinyin
Monday	星期一	xīngqīyī
Tuesday	星期二	xīngqī'èr
Wednesday	星期三	xīngqīsān
Thursday	星期四	xīngqīsì
Friday	星期五	xīngqīwǔ
Saturday	星期六	xīngqīliù
Sunday	星期天 / 星期日	xīngqītiān / xīngqīrì

On signs and timetables you will also see 周一 (zhōuyī) to 周日 (zhōurì). Useful questions:

今天几号？ (Jīntiān jǐ hào?) What's the date today?
今天星期几？ (Jīntiān xīngqī jǐ?) What day is it today?
你的生日是几月几号？ (Nǐ de shēngrì shì jǐ yuè jǐ hào?) When is your birthday?

几 (jǐ) asks about small numbers and fixed sets such as dates and clock times, while 多少 (duōshao) is used for prices and larger numbers. Our Chinese question words guide explains both.

Telling Time in Chinese

Clock time uses 点 (diǎn) for the hour, 分 (fēn) for minutes, 半 (bàn) for half past and 刻 (kè) for a quarter.

Time	Chinese	Pinyin
8:00	八点	bā diǎn
2:00	两点	liǎng diǎn
12:00	十二点	shí'èr diǎn
8:05	八点零五分 / 八点五分	bā diǎn líng wǔ fēn / bā diǎn wǔ fēn
8:15	八点十五分 / 八点一刻	bā diǎn shíwǔ fēn / bā diǎn yí kè
8:30	八点半	bā diǎn bàn
8:45	八点四十五分 / 八点三刻	bā diǎn sìshíwǔ fēn / bā diǎn sān kè
8:55	差五分九点	chà wǔ fēn jiǔ diǎn

差 (chà) means "short of", so 差五分九点 is "five minutes short of nine". Notice that 2:00 is 两点 but 12:00 is 十二点: the 二 vs 两 rule again.

Put the part of the day before the clock time, and the whole time phrase before the verb:

我早上七点起床。 (Wǒ zǎoshang qī diǎn qǐchuáng.) I get up at seven in the morning.
下午三点半见。 (Xiàwǔ sān diǎn bàn jiàn.) See you at half past three this afternoon.
现在几点？ (Xiànzài jǐ diǎn?) What time is it now?

Timetables and tickets often use the 24-hour clock: 14:30 is 十四点三十分 (shísì diǎn sānshí fēn). For "how long" rather than "what time", such as 两个小时 (liǎng ge xiǎoshí, two hours), see our guide to duration of time in Chinese.

Prices in Chinese: 块, 元 and 毛

China's currency, the renminbi, has three units by law: 元 (yuán), 角 (jiǎo) and 分 (fēn). One yuan is ten jiao, and one jiao is ten fen. In speech, most people say 块 (kuài) for yuan and 毛 (máo) for jiao. 元 and 角 are what you see on price tags and receipts. Fen are so small that you will rarely hear them.

Price	Spoken	Pinyin
¥1	一块	yí kuài
¥2	两块	liǎng kuài
¥0.50	五毛	wǔ máo
¥5.50	五块五	wǔ kuài wǔ
¥2.20	两块二	liǎng kuài èr
¥12.80	十二块八	shí'èr kuài bā
¥105	一百零五块	yìbǎi líng wǔ kuài
¥150	一百五十块 / 一百五	yìbǎi wǔshí kuài / yìbǎi wǔ

As with big numbers, the last unit is often dropped: 五块五 is short for 五块五毛. You can also add 钱 (qián, money) at the end, as in 五块钱 (wǔ kuài qián). In 两块二, the first two is 两 because it comes before 块, while the final 二 stands alone at the end.

Phrases for shopping:

多少钱？ (Duōshao qián?) How much is it?
一共多少钱？ (Yígòng duōshao qián?) How much is it altogether?
太贵了！ (Tài guì le!) That's too expensive!
便宜一点儿吧。 (Piányi yìdiǎnr ba.) Make it a bit cheaper.

One trap is discounts. 打八折 (dǎ bā zhé) means you pay 80% of the price, so it is 20% off, not 80% off.

Decimals, Fractions and Percentages

Written	Chinese	Pinyin
3.5	三点五	sān diǎn wǔ
0.25	零点二五	líng diǎn èr wǔ
1/2	二分之一	èr fēn zhī yī
3/4	四分之三	sì fēn zhī sān
50%	百分之五十	bǎi fēn zhī wǔshí

Digits after the decimal point are read one by one. Fractions and percentages say the bottom number first: 四分之三 is literally "of four parts, three".

Formal Chinese Number Characters

There is a second set of number characters called 大写 (dàxiě). They are used on checks, receipts and contracts, because a simple 一 or 二 is too easy to change with an extra stroke. You do not need them for HSK, but they are good to recognize.

Number	Everyday	Formal	Pinyin
1	一	壹	yī
2	二	贰	èr
3	三	叁	sān
4	四	肆	sì
5	五	伍	wǔ
6	六	陆	liù
7	七	柒	qī
8	八	捌	bā
9	九	玖	jiǔ
10	十	拾	shí
100	百	佰	bǎi
1,000	千	仟	qiān

Counting on One Hand: Chinese Number Gestures

In China, the numbers one to ten can be shown on one hand. You will see this at markets, in noisy restaurants and whenever someone confirms a price without shouting. The signs below are the most common in mainland China. Some of them differ by region, and Taiwan and parts of southern China use other shapes for a few numbers.

1: the index finger points up.
2: the index and middle fingers point up in a V.
3: the middle, ring and little fingers point up while the thumb and index finger touch in a small ring. Some people raise the index, middle and ring fingers instead and hold the little finger down with the thumb.
4: four fingers up, with the thumb folded across the palm.
5: the whole hand open.
6: only the thumb and little finger stick out; the three middle fingers are curled in.
7: the tips of the thumb, index and middle fingers are pressed together and point up.
8: the thumb and index finger spread apart in an L shape, with the other fingers curled.
9: the index finger is bent into a hook.
10: a closed fist, or the two index fingers crossed to copy the shape of 十.

Some of these, especially 6 and 8, look like gestures with other meanings in other countries. In a Chinese market they are just numbers: a seller who shows you an L shape is telling you "eight".

How to Practice Chinese Numbers

Count real things aloud, and add the measure word: 三个苹果 (sān ge píngguǒ, three apples), 两本书 (liǎng běn shū, two books).
Read the numbers around you. Prices, house numbers, the time on your phone. Say them in Chinese before you think of the English.
Drill the trouble spots: 四 vs 十, 14 vs 40, 二 vs 两, and big numbers with 万.
Go for speed. Numbers come fast in listening tests and in shops, so practice until you can say a phone number without stopping.
Write them. The characters for one to ten are among the first you learn to write, and stroke order practice makes them stick.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you say numbers 1 to 10 in Chinese?

One to ten are 一 yī, 二 èr, 三 sān, 四 sì, 五 wǔ, 六 liù, 七 qī, 八 bā, 九 jiǔ and 十 shí. Zero is 零 líng. All of them are HSK 1 words, and every larger number is built from them.

How do you count to 100 in Chinese?

Say the tens digit, then 十, then the units digit: 35 is 三十五 (sānshíwǔ) and 99 is 九十九 (jiǔshíjiǔ). Numbers 11 to 19 start with 十 alone, as in 十一 (shíyī), and 100 is 一百 (yìbǎi).

When do you use 两 instead of 二?

Use 两 (liǎng) for "two of something" before a measure word, as in 两个人 (two people), for two o'clock (两点) and usually before 千 and 万. Use 二 (èr) when counting, inside numbers like 十二 and 二十, in ordinals like 第二 and in dates.

Why is the number 1 sometimes pronounced yāo?

When people read digits one by one, as in phone and room numbers, 1 is often said 幺 (yāo) so that it is not confused with 七 (qī, seven). China's police number, 110, is said yāo yāo líng. It is only a way of speaking; you still write the digit 1.

How do you say 10,000 and a million in Chinese?

10,000 has its own word, 万 (wàn), so Chinese groups large numbers in fours. 100,000 is 十万 (shíwàn), a million is 一百万 (yìbǎi wàn), 100 million is 一亿 (yíyì) and a billion is 十亿 (shíyì).

Does 一 always have the first tone?

No. It is yī when you count, read digits or use it as an ordinal, as in 第一. Before a fourth tone it becomes yí (一个 yí ge), and before the other tones it becomes yì (一百 yìbǎi, 一起 yìqǐ).

What's Next

Numbers rarely travel alone: in Chinese they need a measure word before the noun, so read our guide to Chinese measure words next. Then work through the full HSK 1 vocabulary list, which includes the basic number words from this guide, and follow the HSK 1 beginner roadmap. To get the tones of 四, 十 and 一 right, practice with the Chinese tones chart and our guide to hearing and pronouncing the four tones.

Learn Chinese is free to download on iOS and Android, with no account and no ads, and HSK 1 and HSK 2, where the core number words appear, are free in full. You can play any syllable in its pinyin chart, test your ear with the tone trainer and practice writing each number with stroke order. The app guide shows how each tool works.