Chinese Numbers, Dates and Money: A Beginner's Guide

Numbers are the best place to see how logical Chinese can be. After ten basic words, the rest are built by simple rules: eleven is "ten-one", twenty is "two-ten", and ninety-nine is "nine-ten-nine". Dates and prices use the same building blocks, so this one lesson gives you three skills at once.

0 to 10

• 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

Hear them on the numbers topic. A tip: 四 sì and 十 shí sound alike to new learners. Watch the tone and the buzzy vowel: sì is a falling tone with a hissing "s", shí is a rising tone with a "sh".

Building bigger numbers

• 11: 十一 shíyī ("ten-one")
• 20: 二十 èrshí ("two-ten")
• 21: 二十一 èrshíyī
• 99: 九十九 jiǔshíjiǔ
• 100: 一百 yìbǎi
• 101: 一百零一 yìbǎi líng yī (the 零 stands for the missing tens)
• 1,000: 一千 yìqiān
• 10,000: 一万 yíwàn

Chinese counts in groups of ten thousand (万 wàn), not a thousand, so 100,000 is "ten ten-thousands": 十万 shíwàn. This feels strange only for a day or two.

二 or 两?

"Two" has two forms. Use 两 liǎng before a measure word: 两个人 liǎng ge rén (two people), 两杯茶 liǎng bēi chá (two cups of tea). Use 二 èr when counting, in ordinals and in longer numbers: 二月 èr yuè (February), 第二 dì'èr (second), 十二 shí'èr (twelve), 二十 èrshí (twenty). With 100, 1,000 and 10,000 both are possible and 两 is common for the higher ones: 两百 liǎng bǎi, 两千 liǎng qiān, 两万 liǎng wàn. For measure words see the measure-word guide.

Numbers by phone and room: 一 becomes yāo

When reading out phone numbers, room numbers and the emergency numbers, 一 is often said as yāo so that it is not confused with 七 qī. The police number 110 is said yāo yāo líng.

Counting on your fingers

Chinese finger counting goes beyond five on one hand. 1 to 5 look familiar. For 6 you stick out the thumb and little finger, like a phone. 7 is the thumb and first two fingers pinched together. 8 is thumb and index finger out, like a pistol. 9 is the index finger bent into a hook, and 10 is a closed fist or two crossed index fingers. These signs are very common when bargaining in a market, so it is helpful to recognise them.

Dates and days

Chinese dates go from big to small: year, month, day.

• Year: read each digit. 2026年 èr líng èr liù nián
• Month: number + 月 yuè. 一月 yīyuè (January) to 十二月 shí'èryuè (December). There are no month names to learn.
• Day: number + 号 hào (spoken) or 日 rì (written). 24号 èrshísì hào

So 24 October 2026 is 2026年10月24号. Days of the week are also numbered, starting on Monday: 星期一 xīngqī yī (Monday), 星期二 xīngqī èr, up to 星期六 xīngqī liù (Saturday), and 星期日 xīngqī rì or 星期天 xīngqī tiān for Sunday. Useful words: 今天 jīntiān (today), 明天 míngtiān (tomorrow), 昨天 zuótiān (yesterday). The days and months topic has them with audio.

Money

The currency of mainland China is the renminbi (人民币 rénmínbì), whose main unit is the yuan. It has a written form and a spoken form:

• 元 yuán in writing, 块 kuài in speech: 5 yuan is 五块 wǔ kuài.
• 角 jiǎo in writing, 毛 máo in speech: one tenth of a yuan.
• 分 fēn: one hundredth, now rarely used.

Prices in speech drop the last unit: 5.5 yuan is 五块五 wǔ kuài wǔ, and 12 yuan is 十二块 shí'èr kuài. A few phrases cover most shopping:

• 多少钱？ duōshao qián?: how much?
• 三十五块 sānshíwǔ kuài: 35 yuan
• 太贵了 tài guì le: too expensive
• 可以便宜一点儿吗？ kěyǐ piányi yìdiǎnr ma?: can it be a little cheaper?

Prices are easier to follow when you have heard the numbers many times, so practise them in the money topic and in the market scene.

A five-minute practice

1. Say the numbers 1 to 10, then 10 to 100 in tens.
2. Say today's date, then your birthday.
3. Read three prices off a menu or a shopping website in Chinese.
4. Count something in your room with its measure word: 三本书 sān běn shū.

Hear and say the numbers in the numbers topic, then try the dictation game with sentences that contain numbers.