Chinese Numbers 1–100: How to Count in Mandarin (with Audio)

Chinese numbers are one of the easiest things in the language. Learn eleven characters — zero to ten — and one simple rule, and you can say every number from 0 to 99. No "eleven" or "twelve" to memorise, no "-teen" or "-ty" endings: twenty-one is literally "two ten one". Below you will find every building block with pinyin and native audio (press ▶), how the bigger numbers work, the two traps that catch almost every learner, and a free PDF to print.

The Chinese numbers 0 to 10

These eleven characters are all you need. Press ▶ to hear each one.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
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	▶

Watch the tones: 四 (sì, falling) and 十 (shí, rising) sound alike to beginners, and mixing them up turns forty into fourteen. Say them slowly a few times with the audio until the difference feels natural.

11 to 19: ten, then the digit

Eleven is "ten one", twelve is "ten two", and so on up to nineteen.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
十一	shíyī	eleven	▶
十二	shí'èr	twelve	▶
十三	shísān	thirteen
十五	shíwǔ	fifteen
十九	shíjiǔ	nineteen

The tens: the digit, then ten

Turn the order around and you get the tens: "two ten" is twenty, "three ten" is thirty.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
二十	èrshí	twenty	▶
三十	sānshí	thirty	▶
四十	sìshí	forty	▶
五十	wǔshí	fifty	▶
六十	liùshí	sixty	▶
七十	qīshí	seventy	▶
八十	bāshí	eighty	▶
九十	jiǔshí	ninety	▶

Every number from 21 to 99

Put the two patterns together: tens digit + 十 + units digit. That is the whole system.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
二十一	èrshíyī	21 (two ten one)	▶
三十五	sānshíwǔ	35 (three ten five)
四十八	sìshíbā	48 (four ten eight)
七十六	qīshíliù	76 (seven ten six)
九十九	jiǔshíjiǔ	99 (nine ten nine)	▶

Try it yourself before you read on: how would you say 63? Six ten three — 六十三 (liùshísān).

100 and beyond: 百, 千 and 万

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
一百	yìbǎi	one hundred	▶
一千	yìqiān	one thousand	▶
一万	yíwàn	ten thousand	▶

The bigger numbers follow the same logic: 三百 (sānbǎi) is 300, 五千 (wǔqiān) is 5,000, and 一百二十三 (yìbǎi èrshísān) is 123.

The 万 trap

English groups big numbers in threes (thousand, million). Chinese groups them in fours, with its own word for ten thousand: 万 (wàn). So 100,000 is not "a hundred thousand" but "ten ten-thousands" — 十万 (shíwàn) — and a million is "a hundred ten-thousands", 一百万 (yìbǎiwàn). A hundred million has its own word again: 一亿 (yíyì). When you read prices or populations, count in groups of four digits from the right and it clicks.

Zeros in the middle: 零

When a place is empty in the middle of a number, you say 零 once: 101 is 一百零一 (yìbǎi líng yī), 2,005 is 两千零五 (liǎngqiān líng wǔ). A zero at the end is simply dropped: 110 is 一百一十 (yìbǎi yīshí), often shortened in speech to 一百一.

二 or 两? The first trap

Chinese has two words for "two". Use 二 (èr) when you count or read out digits: 一、二、三, 第二 (the second), 十二, 二十. Use 两 (liǎng) when you mean "two of something", before a measure word: 两个人 (two people), 两本书 (two books), 两杯茶 (two cups of tea). For 200, 2,000 and 20,000 you will usually hear 两百, 两千 and 两万.

Chinese	Pinyin	English	Listen
两	liǎng	two (of something)	▶

一 changes its tone: the second trap

一 on its own, in counting and at the end of a number is yī (first tone). Inside a phrase it changes: before a fourth-tone syllable it becomes yí (一个 yí ge, 一万 yíwàn), and before the other tones it becomes yì (一百 yìbǎi, 一千 yìqiān). Dictionaries print yī everywhere; native speakers do not say it that way, so copy the audio rather than the spelling.

Numbers in everyday life

• Prices: 二十块 (èrshí kuài) — 20 yuan. 块 is the spoken word for yuan.
• Age: 我二十五岁 (wǒ èrshíwǔ suì) — I am 25.
• Years are read digit by digit: 2026年 is 二零二六年 (èr líng èr liù nián).
• Phone and room numbers are read digit by digit too, and 1 is usually said 幺 (yāo) so it cannot be confused with 七 (qī): 110 is yāo yāo líng.
• Order: put 第 (dì) in front for "first, second…": 第一 (dì yī), 第三 (dì sān).
• Half: 半 (bàn) — 一半 (yíbàn, half) and 三点半 (sān diǎn bàn, half past three).

Lucky and unlucky numbers

Numbers carry meaning in China because of how they sound. 8 (八 bā) sounds like 发 (fā, to prosper), so it is the luckiest number of all — think of phone numbers full of eights and the Beijing Olympics opening on 8/8/08 at 8:08 pm. 4 (四 sì) sounds like 死 (sǐ, death), so many buildings skip the fourth floor. 6 (六 liù) suggests things going smoothly, and 9 (九 jiǔ) sounds like 久, "long-lasting".

Listen and repeat: all 30 numbers in one video

The fastest way to make the numbers automatic is to say them out loud. In this video every number is spoken in English, then in Chinese, then slowly — and then it is your turn, with the pinyin under every character.

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Frequently asked questions

How do you say 100 in Chinese?

一百 (yìbǎi). Unlike English "hundred", the 一 is required — you cannot say just 百.

How do you count from 1 to 10 in Chinese?

一 yī, 二 èr, 三 sān, 四 sì, 五 wǔ, 六 liù, 七 qī, 八 bā, 九 jiǔ, 十 shí.

What is 10,000 in Chinese?

一万 (yíwàn). Chinese has a separate word for ten thousand, and big numbers are built on it: 十万 is 100,000 and 一百万 is a million.

Why is 4 an unlucky number in China?

四 (sì) sounds almost like 死 (sǐ), "to die", so many people avoid it in phone numbers, room numbers and floors.

From numbers to reading

Numbers are a great first win because the characters are few and the rule is simple. The rest of written Chinese works the same way more than you might think: a small set of characters covers most of what you read — see the most common Chinese characters. When you want to go further, Character Mastery takes you through the 2,500 characters behind 98% of everyday Chinese in frequency order, with meanings in your own language — $1 for the first seven days, then $29/month.