This page shows samples of pronunciations of the numbers (as counted 1-10) in several dozen Chinese dialects. The page is color-coded according to the rest of this site by language: brown for Mandarin; shades of blue for Jin, Huizhou, and Wu; shades of green for Xiang and Gan; red for Min; orange for Kejia (Hakka); purple for Yue (Cantonese) and Pinghua; and yellow for Sino-xenic languages (Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese). This page is still under construction, so check back for additions. (Updated April 15, 2003.)
First, let's take a look at what tones Chinese numbers belong to in the following tone chart (the 入 tone is split as in Cantonese):
Due to the disappearance of 入 tone in Mandarin and the migration to other tones, here is the present distribution of numbers in Mandarin tones:
The first few Mandarin dialects have recordings: click the syllables to hear how they sound.
How do you count in Chinese? All base numbers (0-10, 100, 1000, etc.) in Chinese have one syllable and any multiple of these are compounds of the consitituent parts. For example 15 is read 10-5, 25 is read 2-10-5, 55 is read 5-10-5. 100 and up need an extra syllable 1 in front. The final zeros do not need to be mentioned: 150 is read 1-100-5 (3 syllables), 155 is read 1-100-5-10-5 (5 syllables). So numbers with zeros in the middle need the zero mentioned (the opposite of English): 105 is read 1-100-0-5, but there are some exceptions: 15,050 is read 1-10000-5-1000-5-10. Larger numbers are read differently because the base units are separated by 10,000, not by 1,000 as in English. So large numbers are read in multiples of 10,000: 150,000 (15,0000) is read 10-5-10000, 1,505,000 (150,5000) is read 1-100-5-10-10000-5-1000, 12.5 million (1200,0000) is read 1-1000-2-100-10000. The next larger number is the 100 million (yi k). The population of China can be expressed (rounded off) as 13 yi k which is read as 10-3-100000000. When saying a phrase like "5 or 6 months", the "or" gets omitted and becomes 5-6 months. But you have to be careful. One time I said to a friend "9 or 10 months" and it got expressed as "9-10 months" meaning 90 months, of course confusing my friend. I had to restate it with a pause between the two numbers. Here is a list of numbers: 一 1 yit
十 10 ship
百 100 baik
千 1000 qian
萬 1,0000 wan (ten thousand)
億 1,0000,0000 yik (hundred million)
兆 1,0000,0000,0000 zhao (trillion)
京 1,0000,0000,0000,0000 jing (ten quadrillion)
垓 1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 gai (hundred quintillion)
秭 1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 zi (1 septillion, also known as 1 billion or 100 quintillion)
Historically (孫子算經) these numbers were in greater multiples:
兆 was 萬萬億曰兆 or 100 million yi (10 quadrillion = 10,000,000,000,000,000)
京 was 萬萬兆曰京 or 100 million zhao (1 septillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
垓 was 萬萬京曰垓 or 100 million jing (100 nonillion = 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
秭 was 萬萬垓曰秭 or 100 million gai (10 duodecillion = 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
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