How do you say numbers over 10,000 in Mandarin Chinese

 

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

iStock 1201365871



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?

If you want to learn Mandarin Chinese, feel free to REGISTER FOR A FREE TRIAL CLASS HERE or send me an email (Chen Huimin):huimin@laerkinesisk.no.

We offer private lessons and group classes at all levels, HSK 1-6, children, adults, business. All Mandarin Chinese classes are offered in classrooms or online.

Do you know anyone who wants to learn Chinese? We will give you 500 US dollars as a bonus as a part of our program “Refer a friend – get $ 500” if your friend or others you introduce to us start taking Chinese classes at our school.Register here if this is interesting for you!

WeChat Image 20210427081950 3

Sign up for a free trial class here.

Sign up for classes here.

Learn more about our Chinese Summer Camp for Children here.

Learn about our Internship Program in China.

Get free Chinese learning resources.

Learn about China’s 2024 Offical Holiday Schedule

Ønsker du en gratis prøveklasse? Registrer deg!

Bli med på en gratis prøveklasse i kinesisk!

Do you want a Free Trial Chinese Class? Register now!

Join a Free Trial Chinese Class!