Numbers in Chinese are really logical. Just learn 1 to 10, and you can count all the way to 99 – No problems!
Here’s a quick-start guide to Chinese numbers:
1. The Basics: 1 to 10
These are the building blocks. Take a moment to look at the characters and get comfortable with their tones:
| Number | Character | Pinyin | Pronunciation Tip |
| 0 | 零 | líng | ling (rising tone) |
| 1 | 一 | yī | eee (high flat tone) |
| 2 | 二 | èr | arr (falling tone) |
| 3 | 三 | sān | sahn (high flat tone) |
| 4 | 四 | sì | suh (sharp falling tone – avoid 4th-tone superstition!) |
| 5 | 五 | wǔ | woo (low dipping tone) |
| 6 | 六 | liù | leo (falling tone) |
| 7 | 七 | qī | chee (high flat tone) |
| 8 | 八 | bā | bah (high flat tone) |
| 9 | 九 | jiǔ | jio (low dipping tone) |
| 10 | 十 | shí | shur (rising tone) |
Native Trick: One-Handed Counting
In China, people don’t use two hands to count from 6 to 10. They have unique, brilliant one-handed gestures so they can count all the way to 10 while holding a phone or a shopping bag!
There are some regional variations, though.
Take a look at how 1 through 10 are represented dynamically with just one hand:
2. Counting 11 to 19 (The “Ten-Plus” Rule)
To say any number from 11 to 19, you literally say “Ten [and] X”:
- 11 = 十一 (shí yī) — Ten-one
- 12 = 十二 (shí èr) — Ten-two
- 15 = 十五 (shí wǔ) — Ten-five
- 19 = 十九 (shí jiǔ) — Ten-nine
3. Counting 20 to 99 (The “X-Ten-Y” Rule)
For multiples of ten, you say how many tens there are. To say “twenty,” you say “Two-Ten”:
- 20 = 二十 (èr shí) — Two-ten
- 30 = 三十 (sān shí) — Three-ten
To make a specific number like 25, you combine everything: “Two-Ten-Five”:
- 25 = 二十五 (èr shí wǔ) — Two-ten-five
- 58 = 五十八 (wǔ shí bā) — Five-ten-eight
- 99 = 九十九 (jiǔ shí jiǔ) — Nine-ten-nine
4. The Famous “Two” Trap: 二 (èr) vs. 两 (liǎng)
One of the biggest hurdles for beginners learning Chinese numbers is that there are two words for the number 2:
- èr (二) is used for counting, math, and telephone numbers (e.g., 2, 12, 20, 22).
- liǎng (两) is used when you are counting physical objects alongside a measure word.
Rule of Thumb: If you can say “a pair of…” or “two of [something]” in English, you must use liǎng in Chinese.
- Two people: liǎng gè rén (两个人) — Never “èr gè”
- Two cars: liǎng liàng chē (两辆车) — Remember “liàng” is our car measure word!
Summary
So now you can count from 1 to 10, and that means you can count to 99 too! How easy was that?! We’ll cover bigger numbers in a later post.
