Chinese Numbers: 1–10, Big Numbers and 萬

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). Everything above ten is built from these ten characters with a regular pattern: 11 is “ten-one” (十一), 20 is “two-ten” (二十), 21 is “two-ten-one” (二十一). The one real hurdle is 萬 (wàn), which means 10,000 and not 1,000, so large numbers group in fours where English groups in threes.

This page gives you the table with pinyin and Zhuyin, the pattern for 11 to 99, the system for hundreds, thousands and 萬, and the Taiwan-specific habits: how phone numbers are read, what the formal characters 壹貳參 are for, and how numbers show up in daily life. The finger signs and a note on hearing 四 and 十 apart come near the end.

Numbers 0–10

Number	Character	Formal (financial)	Pinyin	Zhuyin
0	零	零	líng	ㄌㄧㄥˊ
1	一	壹	yī	ㄧ
2	二	貳	èr	ㄦˋ
3	三	參	sān	ㄙㄢ
4	四	肆	sì	ㄙˋ
5	五	伍	wǔ	ㄨˇ
6	六	陸	liù	ㄌㄧㄡˋ
7	七	柒	qī	ㄑㄧ
8	八	捌	bā	ㄅㄚ
9	九	玖	jiǔ	ㄐㄧㄡˇ
10	十	拾	shí	ㄕˊ

Readings follow the Ministry of Education dictionary. Note that 參 is read sān in this numeric use, though its ordinary readings are cān and shēn. Zero is written 零, and you will also see the round form 〇 in dates and numbers such as 二〇二六年.

The formal characters in the third column are for places where a number must not be altered: cheques, contracts, receipts and banknote amounts. 一 can be turned into 二 or 三 with a stroke or two, so contracts and cheques use 壹, 貳 and 參. The same system has formal forms for the place values: 百 becomes 佰 (bǎi) and 千 becomes 仟 (qiān), while 萬 stays 萬. That is why a banknote reads 壹佰圓 (100), 伍佰圓 (500) or 壹仟圓 (1,000), with the unit printed as 圓, the formal form of 元 (see Money in Chinese). You will not use these characters in conversation, but you will see them on official forms and on money.

Two notes on the first ten

一 changes tone in context. On its own, counting, or in a phone number, it is yī. Before a fourth-tone syllable it is read yí (一個 yí ge, 一樣 yí yàng), and before first, second or third tones it is read yì (一天 yì tiān, 一起 yì qǐ). This is tone sandhi, covered in Mandarin Tone Sandhi in Taiwan.

二 and 兩 both mean two. 二 is for counting, ordinals and digits (二月, 第二, 二十). 兩 (liǎng, ㄌㄧㄤˇ) goes before a measure word (兩個人, “two people”). The details, including 兩百 and 二百, are in 二 vs 兩. For measure words themselves, see Chinese Measure Words.

TOCFL’s word lists put 一 to 十, 百, 千 and 萬 in the Novice list, and 零 in Band A Level 1 (A1). These are the first words in any course, and you can see the lists at TOCFL vocabulary.

11 to 99

The pattern is a calculation you can read left to right.

Number	Characters	Pinyin
11	十一	shí yī
12	十二	shí èr
20	二十	èr shí
21	二十一	èr shí yī
35	三十五	sān shí wǔ
99	九十九	jiǔ shí jiǔ

Teens drop the leading 一: 15 is 十五, not 一十五. From 20 up, the multiplier comes first. That is all of it. If you can count to ten and multiply, you can count to 99.

Hundreds and thousands

Add 百 (bǎi, hundred) and 千 (qiān, thousand), with the multiplier first.

Number	Characters
100	一百
101	一百零一
110	一百一十 (spoken often as 一百一)
300	三百
1,000	一千
1,005	一千零五
1,200	一千兩百 or 一千二百 (spoken often as 一千二)

The character 零 fills a gap. When one or more zero places sit inside a number, you say 零 once and continue: 101 is 一百零一, and 1,005 is 一千零五. A run of several zeros is still a single 零. At the end of a number no 零 is needed.

In speech, a final unit after the last digit is often dropped: 一百二 for 120, 三百五 for 350, 一千二 for 1,200. You can hear this in markets constantly and it is worth understanding early.

萬 and 億: where English habits fail

English has a word for each step of three zeros: thousand, million, billion. Chinese has a word for each step of four.

Number	Characters	Pinyin
10,000	一萬	yí wàn
100,000	十萬	shí wàn
1,000,000	一百萬	yì bǎi wàn
10,000,000	一千萬	yì qiān wàn
100,000,000	一億	yí yì
1,000,000,000,000	一兆	yí zhào

The MOE dictionary gives 兆 as “the number that is 10,000 times 億”. Read it that way and 兆 is a trillion, which is the Taiwan usage. The pinyin in the table shows the tone changes of 一 as it is spoken.

The trick for reading large numbers is to stop thinking in thousands. Instead, group the digits in fours from the right and put the unit name after each group.

• 35,000 is 3萬5,000, so 三萬五千.
• 2,000,000 is 200萬, so 兩百萬 (or 二百萬).
• 20,000 is 2萬, so 兩萬; 2,000 is 兩千 (or 二千).
• 123,450,000 is 1億2,345萬, so 一億兩千三百四十五萬 (or 一億二千三百四十五萬).

When you see an English figure with commas, find the 萬 boundary first. For example 450,000 is 45萬, and 45萬 is 四十五萬. Dividing by 10,000 is the fastest way to convert, and after a few weeks of seeing prices it becomes automatic.

You will use this most for money. Rent of NT$25,000 is 兩萬五, and a monthly salary of NT$40,000 is 四萬. More on that in Money in Chinese.

Years, decimals, fractions and percentages

• Years are read digit by digit: 2026年 is 二〇二六年 (èr líng èr liù nián). The Republic of China year count that Taiwan uses on official forms is covered in Dates and Time in Chinese.
• Decimals use 點 (diǎn): 3.5 is 三點五.
• Fractions put the denominator first: 1/4 is 四分之一 (sì fēn zhī yī), and “half” is 一半 (yí bàn).
• Percentages use 百分之: 50% is 百分之五十.
• Ordinals add 第 (dì): 第一, 第二, 第三.

Phone numbers in Taiwan

Phone numbers are read digit by digit, zero as 零 (líng), with 二 for two. You do not use 兩 here. Taiwan mobile numbers begin with 09, for example 0912-345-678, which you read as 零九一二，三四五，六七八, with a pause between each group. Landline numbers begin with an area code such as 02 for Taipei. For the number 110 (police) or 119 (fire and ambulance), you read the digits one by one, 一一〇 and 一一九.

What about 1: yī or yāo? In Taiwan most people say yī when reading out a phone number. 么 (yāo, also written 幺), which the MOE dictionary lists as another name for one, is the mainland habit for phone and room numbers, where it keeps 1 from being heard as 7 (qī). In Taiwan you hear yāo mostly in military, police and radio-style readouts. Say yī, and recognise yāo if you hear it. If a digit could be confused, say it clearly or write it down.

Counting on your fingers

One to five is one finger for each. Six and eight have single-hand signs:

• 六 (6): thumb and little finger extended, the other fingers curled.
• 八 (8): thumb and index finger extended in an L shape.

For other numbers, and whenever a spoken number is unclear, showing it on a phone calculator or writing it down is the clearest option.

Hearing 四 and 十

Many learners confuse 四 (sì) with 十 (shí) when listening. The difference is the retroflex sh in 十 against the plain s in 四, and tone: 十 is second tone, 四 is fourth. Taiwan Mandarin often softens retroflex sounds, so 十 may sound closer to 四 than the textbook suggests. The retroflex article covers it. When it matters, ask the speaker to repeat, or confirm the figure by writing it.

Lucky and unlucky digits

Numbers carry meanings in Taiwan, such as 四 sounding like 死 and 八 sounding like 發. The puns, floor numbering and gift amounts are covered in Chinese Homophones and Lucky Numbers, and the same page explains red envelope amounts.

How to practise

Numbers are best learned by using real ones. Read the bus route numbers and prices around you out loud. Convert large figures into 萬 until it stops needing thought. Say your own phone number in Chinese. For spaced review, cards that show the digits and ask for the spoken form (the reverse of the usual recognition card) are the ones worth having.

Related reading

• 二 vs 兩: When to Use Each in Chinese
• Money in Chinese: Prices, 塊 and 元 in Taiwan
• Chinese Homophones and Lucky Numbers in Taiwan
• Chinese Measure Words