The use of large numbers in Mandarin Chinese is different from many other languages. Unlike some languages that form numbers based on the number 1000 in large numbers, numbers between 10,000 and 100,000,000 in Mandarin Chinese are based on how many tens of thousands they have and a set of rules for numbers from 100,000,000 and up.
Mandarin Chinese has many number units with unique words for each unit.
Two of the most commonly used number units are:
wàn 万: ten thousand
yì 亿: one hundred million
TEN THOUSAND - WÀN 万
Many people who study Mandarin Chinese find it difficult to learn and use the number unit wàn 万. Instead of dividing “twelve thousand” numerically into “12,000” into parts of three digits, Divide this number as in Mandarin Chinese: “1.2000”. Here you say yī wàn liǎng qiān 一 万 两千, “one ten thousand” yī wàn 一 万 and “two thousand”
liǎng qiān 两千.
10000
1.0000 yīwàn 一 万 one ten thousand
13000
1.3000 yī wàn sān qiān 一 万 三千 one ten thousand, three thousand
13600
1.3600 yī wàn sān qiān liù bǎi 一 万 三千 六百 one ten thousand, three thousand, six hundred
66700
6.6700 liù wàn liù qiān qī bǎi 六万 六千 七百 six ten thousand, six thousand, seven hundred
HUNDRED MILLION - YÌ 亿
After 99 999 999, we use another new numerical unit, yì 亿, “one hundred million.”
A number like 1,101,110,000 you print out as: shí yī yì yī bǎi yī shí yī wàn 十一 亿 一百 一 十一 万.
You can divide this into two parts:
Part 1: 11 x 100 000 000, 11 x yì 亿
Part 2: 111 x 10000, 111 x wàn 万
THE MANDARIN CHINESE NUMBER STRUCTURE
1 000 000 000
shí yì 十亿 one billion
100 000 000 000
yì 亿 hundred million
10 000 000
qiān wàn 千万 ten million
1 000 000
bǎi wàn 百万 one million
100 000
shí wàn 十万 hundred thousand
10 000
wàn 万 ten thousand
1000
qiān 千 thousand
100
bǎi 百 hundred
10
shí 十 ten
1
yī 一 one
The following pattern constructs any number from 10,000 to 100,000,000:
number 10,000
number 1000
number 100
number 10
number 1
If you use numbers of one hundred or tens, you replace many zeros in a row with a zero – líng 零.
SOME NUMBER EXAMPLES
sì bǎi liù shí wǔ 四百 六 十五 465
yī qiān líng bā shí jiǔ 一千 零八 十九 1089
sān wàn wǔ qiān qī bǎi bā shí jiǔ 三万 五千 七百 八十 九 35789
shí liù wàn liù qiān bā bǎi èr shí yī 十六 万 六千 八百 二十 一 166821
sānshí wǔ wàn líng liù bǎi qī shí sān 三十 五万 零 六百 七十 三 350673
jiǔ bǎi wǔ shí liù wàn sì qiān sān bǎi sān shí 九百 五十 六万 四千 三百 三十 9564330
jiǔ bǎi líng yī wàn yī qiān líng sān shí sì 九百 零 一 万 一千 零三 十四 9011034
yīqiān líng sān wàn sìqiān èrbǎi yīshíwǔ 一千 零 三万 四千 二百 一 十 10034215
yī yì liù qiān qī bǎi bā shí jiǔ wàn sān qiān sì bǎi èr shí 一 亿 六千 七百 八十 九万 三千 87 九万 三千 87
An important thing to know when learning large numbers in Mandarin Chinese is that the numbers follow categories of up to 4 digits. When you get to the fifth digit, from wàn 万 (10 ^ 4 10000) onwards, there is a new numeric name in Chinese consisting of up to 4 new digits:
shí 十 10 ^ 1 10
bǎi 百 10 ^ 2 100
qiān 千 10 ^ 3 1000
wàn 万 10 ^ 4 10000
yì 亿 10 ^ 8 100 000 000
zhào 兆 10 ^ 12 1 000 000 000 000 000
jīng 京 10 ^ 16 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
gāi 垓 10 ^ 20 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
zǐ 秭 10 ^ 24 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
DO YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE MANDARIN CHINESE OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO?
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