Tutorial 1: The digits 0-9 - Chinese Numbers Explained

零

Let's start with the basic units: 0 (zero) through 9 (nine). These are analogous to the digits in the 'ones' place. Here are the written and pinyin forms of 0–9:

Basic Numbers
0	〇	líng	zero
0	零	líng	zero
1	一	yī	one
2	二	èr	two
3	三	sān	three
4	四	sì	four
5	五	wŭ	five
6	六	liù	six
7	七	qī	seven
8	八	bā	eight
9	九	jiŭ	nine

Notice there are two distinct Hanzi characters for 'zero': 零 and 〇, with the same pronunciation. They are generally interchangable, but you will see 〇 used more often in ordinal numbers and index numbers, such as the year (see Dates).

In written Chinese you will generally see Arabic numerals used to represent actual numbers (0,1,2,3, etc.), but in some contexts, such as the names of places, the numbers will be written as Hanzi characters. For example Sanshan

三山

sān shān

district of Wuhu in Anhui province, or Sichuan province, written as

四川

sì chuān

which literally means "four rivers", but in this word the character actually refers to the four plains that originally comprised the province (See the Wikipedia entry for Sichuan).

Room 5
five	room
五	间
wŭ	jiān

Second Floor
two	floor
二	楼
èr	lóu

Sanshan
three	mountains
三	山
sān	shān

Sichuan
four	rivers
四	川
sì	chuān

幺

Phone numbers are expressed by simply reading each individual digit. When saying phone numbers speakers will often use a different word for "one":

幺

yāo

, to avoid confusing

一

yī

and

七

qī

. Here is an example of a phone number using 幺:

Phone Number Example
1	2	8	-	1	7	1	7	-	4	3	2	9
幺	二	八		幺	七	幺	七		四	三	二	九
yāo	èr	bā		yāo	qī	yāo	qī		sì	sān	èr	jiŭ

Finally, some useful numbers in an emergency:

Emergency: Police
1	1	0
幺	幺	〇
yāo	yāo	líng

Emergency: Fire
1	1	9
幺	幺	九
yāo	yāo	jiŭ

Ambulance
1	2	0
幺	二	〇
yāo	èr	líng

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