Close Book                      Contents                    Days of the Week                  Months of the Year

Counting to a Hundred Million in Chinese
The Chinese number system is even more logical than our own, which is one reason why Chinese children take to math better than western children.
Here are the numbers from one to ten again.
yi Chinese characterpicture: er Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character san, "three".picture: Chinese character si, "four".picture: wu Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character liu, "six".picture: Chinese character qipicture: Chinese character bapicture: Chinese character jiupicture: Chinese character shi
(Hover your cursor over a number to remind you of how it is pronounced.  Click on any character to hear how it is pronounced by a real Chinese person.  Use your back arrow to return.)

If you can count to six, you will find the days of the week quite easy to learn.
There is no special character for eleven or twelve. 
Eleven is ten one
picture: Chinese character shiyi Chinese character
Twelve is
picture: Chinese character shipicture: er Chinese character
If you can count to twelve, you will find the months of the year very easy to learn.  I'd suggest you look at the days of the week and the months of the year before you go on to learn to count to a hundred million, which is not actually very satisfying at all.

Thirteen is
picture: Chinese character shipicture: Chinese character san, "three".
Fourteen is 
picture: Chinese character shipicture: Chinese character si, "four". 
Hopefully you get the idea.  The pattern continues all the way to
Twenty which is picture: er Chinese character
picture: Chinese character shi or "two" "ten"
Twenty-one ispicture: er Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character shiyi Chinese character
Twenty-two is picture: er Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character shipicture: er Chinese character
and so on all the way to thirty.
Now take a guess about what thirty is....


sctoll down











Hopefully you got it.  Thirty ispicture: Chinese character san, "three".
picture: Chinese character shi
Forty is picture: Chinese character si, "four".picture: Chinese character shi
Fifty is picture: wu Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character shi
and so on all the way to one hundred
One hundred in Chinese is yi bai  yi Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".
So what would you expect fifty seven to look like?

scroll down









picture: wu Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character shipicture: Chinese character qi
That's it.  "five" "ten" "seven"
Now that you understand the logic of Chinese numbers, what would you expect three hundred and eighty four to look like?
 
384

scroll down








picture: Chinese character san, "three".picture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".picture: Chinese character bapicture: Chinese character shipicture: Chinese character si, "four".
Of course.  san bai ba shi si.
"three" "hundred" "eight" "ten" "four"
And this pattern continues all the way to a thousand, which is
yi Chinese charactergraphic: Chinese character qian, "thousand".

I said the Chinese system is simpler than the western system, and this is true until you get to ten thousand,
which we would expect to be
picture: Chinese character shigraphic: Chinese character qian, "thousand".  10,000  but it isn't. 
The  Chinese have a special name and character for ten thousand.
yi Chinese charactergraphic: Chinese character wan, "ten thousand"
So 100,000, our "one hundred thousand" is notyi Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".graphic: Chinese character qian, "thousand".
it's picture: Chinese character shigraphic: Chinese character wan, "ten thousand" or ten ten-thousands.
1,000,000 our "million" isyi Chinese characterpicture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".graphic: Chinese character wan, "ten thousand" or one hundred ten-thousands
The Chinese also have a special name for 100,000,000  or "one hundred million".  It is graphic: Chinese character yi, "hundred million" yi

So three million four hundred fifty two thousand seven hundred and eighty nine is?

3,452,789




scroll down


















3,452,789
picture: Chinese character san, "three".picture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".picture: Chinese character si, "four".picture: Chinese character shipicture: wu Chinese charactergraphic: Chinese character wan, "ten thousand"picture: er Chinese charactergraphic: Chinese character qian, "thousand".picture: Chinese character qipicture: Chinese character bai, "hundred".picture: Chinese character bapicture: Chinese character shipicture: Chinese character jiu
san bai si shi wu wan er qian qi bai ba shi jiu

Now don't expect to be able to do that in your head without a lot of practice.
Close Book                      Contents                      Days of the Week                 Months of the Year