Numbers in Chinese: Full 1–100 Chart, Pinyin, and How to Say Them

There is a joke from the Qing dynasty about a rich man’s son. His tutor teaches him that one horizontal stroke is 一 yī (“one”), two strokes are 二 èr (“two”), and three strokes are 三 sān (“three”). The boy declares he has mastered Chinese characters and fires the tutor. Later his father asks him to write an invitation for a friend surnamed 万 Wàn (“ten thousand”). A whole day passes. When the father asks what is taking so long, the son shouts back from his room: he has only drawn five thousand lines so far.

The joke works because the first three numbers really do look that simple — and then the system changes. The good news is that what replaces it is far more logical than English. Learn thirteen characters and two small rules, and you can say any number from 1 to 1,000 without memorising anything else.

Numbers in Chinese 1–100: the full chart

Everything starts with 0–10. These eleven characters are the raw material for every other number in the language, so learn them properly before moving on — they sit at HSK 1 and are treated as assumed knowledge at every level above it in the new HSK framework.

From 11 to 99 there is nothing new to memorise. English forces you to learn irregular words — “eleven”, “twelve”, “thirteen” — while Chinese is fully compositional: 11 is simply “ten-one”, and 45 is “four-ten-five”. Here is every number from 1 to 100.

If you want to drill the foundation first, work through our short guide to counting from 1 to 10 in Mandarin before you tackle the hundreds.

How to say “one” in Chinese: 一 yī, 幺 yāo and tone changes

The number one in Chinese is 一 yī — a single horizontal stroke, the simplest character in the writing system. But 一 is the one number that does not behave predictably, and this trips up more beginners than any other single character. It has three spoken tones and one alternative reading.

The last row matters more than it looks. In a noisy hotel lobby, 一 yī and 七 qī sound almost identical, so Chinese speakers substitute 幺 yāo when reading digits aloud. It is not a different number system — it is a clarity convention, much like pilots saying “niner” for nine. You will meet it the first time a receptionist reads your room number back to you.

The two rules behind every Chinese number

GoEast’s teaching team reduces the whole 1–1,000 range to two rules. Once you hear them as flow conventions rather than random exceptions, the remaining “irregularities” disappear.

Rule 1 — the 十 shí rule: when to drop the leading 一 yī

Below 100, the “one” in front of “ten” is silent. Above 99, it comes back.

Think of it as a shortcut that only works under 100. Native speakers shed that extra syllable long ago in the two-digit range, but the moment a hundreds or thousands digit appears in front, the 一 yī snaps back to keep the positions clear.

Rule 2 — the 零 líng rule: when to say “zero”

零 líng is a bridge, not a quantity. You say it whenever there is a gap between two non-zero digits — and no matter how many zeros sit in that gap, you cross the bridge exactly once.

Hundreds: 100, 101, 110 and 500 in Chinese

One hundred is 百 bǎi, and the pattern is “how many hundreds” + 百 bǎi + whatever follows. So 100 is 一百 yībǎi, 500 is 五百 wǔbǎi, and 900 is 九百 jiǔbǎi. The interesting cases are the ones with a zero or a one in the middle — which is exactly what most people search for.

Thousands, 万 wàn and big numbers

A thousand is 千 qiān, and the structure continues in the same order: thousands, hundreds, tens, ones. So 1,000 is 一千 yīqiān, 1,001 is 一千零一 yīqiān líng yī, and 2,003 is 两千零三 liǎngqiān líng sān.

Then Chinese does something English does not. Above 9,999 the language switches to a new unit, 万 wàn (10,000), and counts in tens of thousands rather than thousands. English groups digits in threes; Chinese groups them in fours. This single difference causes more confusion for learners than every other number rule combined.

So 十万 shíwàn is 100,000, not 1,000,000 — the trap that catches almost every beginner. There is no 一万万 in modern usage; once you pass 万 wàn ten thousand times over, the unit becomes 亿 yì. The practical trick is to re-group the digits in fours instead of threes: 2,914,680 becomes 291 | 4680, which you read as 二百九十一万四千六百八十 èrbǎi jiǔshíyī wàn sìqiān liùbǎi bāshí.

This is not an academic point. Salaries, rents and property prices in China are quoted in 万 wàn constantly — a Shanghai apartment listed at 五百万 wǔbǎiwàn is five million RMB, and hearing that as five hundred thousand is an expensive mistake.

二 èr or 两 liǎng? Which “two” to use

Chinese has two words for the number two, and they are not interchangeable. The short version: 二 èr is the digit, 两 liǎng is the quantity.

Note the position rule for round units: before 百 bǎi, 千 qiān and 万 wàn, 两 liǎng is normally preferred (两千 liǎngqiān), while in the tens position you always use 二 (二十 èrshí, never 两十). We break the full system down in our dedicated guides to the differences between 二 and 两 and when to choose 两 liǎng over 二 èr.

Three mistakes learners make with Chinese numbers

1. Saying 一十三 yī shísān for 13. Learners apply the formula literally and add the “one” back. Below 100 it is always dropped: 十三个人 shísān ge rén, thirteen people. Above 99 it returns — 113 is 一百一十三 yībǎi yīshísān.
2. Dropping the 零 líng when there is a gap. Saying 两千三 liǎngqiān sān for 2,003 does not sound like a small slip to a Chinese listener — it sounds like 2,300, a completely different number. The zero is the listener’s position marker.
3. Saying 零 líng twice for consecutive zeros. 2,003 has two zeros in it, but you cross the bridge once: 两千零三 liǎngqiān líng sān, never 两千零零三.

Years, phone numbers, time and prices

Numbers in Chinese switch between two modes. In counting mode you build a value: 2018 as a quantity is 两千零一十八 liǎngqiān líng yīshíbā. In digit-string mode you simply read the digits one by one, and the 十 shí rule does not apply at all. Years, phone numbers, room numbers and ID numbers all use digit-string mode.

Years

Read each digit separately and add 年 nián at the end. The year 1991 is 一九九一年 yī jiǔ jiǔ yī nián; 2018 is 二零一八年 èr líng yī bā nián. Every zero is spoken here, because there is no gap to bridge — you are reading four separate digits, not one number.

Phone numbers

Also digit by digit, with 一 yī becoming 幺 yāo. A number written 139-1234-5678 is read 幺三九，幺二三四，五六七八 yāo sān jiǔ, yāo èr sān sì, wǔ liù qī bā. Chinese speakers usually chunk mobile numbers 3-4-4, matching how they are printed.

Telling the time

Hours take 点 diǎn, minutes take 分 fēn (short for 分钟 fēnzhōng), and half past is 半 bàn.

That last row is the 零 líng rule again: when the minutes are under ten, you say 零 líng to mark the empty slot. Nine o’clock plus five minutes is 九点零五分 jiǔ diǎn líng wǔ fēn, not 九点五分.

Prices

China’s currency is the renminbi. The written units are 元 yuán, 角 jiǎo and 分 fēn — one 元 yuán is ten 角 jiǎo, and one 角 jiǎo is ten 分 fēn. But almost nobody says 元 yuán and 角 jiǎo out loud. In everyday speech you use 块 kuài and 毛 máo instead.

The final unit is usually dropped when it is obvious: 九块五 jiǔ kuài wǔ, not 九块五毛. Digital payments have made 分 fēn largely invisible in daily life, but you will still see all three units printed on receipts.

Lucky and unlucky numbers in Chinese

Chinese number superstitions are driven by homophones — a number is auspicious or not depending on what it sounds like. This affects real decisions: phone numbers, licence plates, apartment floors and wedding gifts.

Frequently asked questions