Chinese Numbers Explained
Moving up past the thousands it starts to get a little tricky, this is where the structures of Mandarin and English numbers part ways. In English the number ten thousand is constructed by simply combining smaller multiples of ten: "ten" times "thousand", essentially reusing two smaller numbers to create the larger one. You might be tempted to do the same in Mandarin, combining 十 and 千 to create 十千. Don't do it!! Mandarin has a distinct word that means "ten thousand": .
Creating multiples of ten-thousand is the same as for lower numbers: put a digit in front of 万 to make unit multiples:
| The Ten-Thousands |
|---|
| 1,0000 | 一万 | yī wàn | one 'ten-thousand' |
| 2,0000 | 两万 | liǎng wàn | two 'ten-thousands' |
| 3,0000 | 三万 | sān wàn | three 'ten-thousands' |
| 4,0000 | 四万 | sì wàn | four 'ten-thousands' |
| 5,0000 | 五万 | wŭ wàn | five 'ten-thousands' |
| 6,0000 | 六万 | liù wàn | six 'ten-thousands' |
| 7,0000 | 七万 | qī wàn | seven 'ten-thousands' |
| 8,0000 | 八万 | bā wàn | eight 'ten-thousands' |
| 9,0000 | 九万 | jiŭ wàn | nine 'ten-thousands' |
Notice that in this table the commas are placed around groups of four digits, rather than three. In practice Chinese uses the international standard, placing commas around groups of three digits, but they are presented here in groups of four to help you visualize how Chinese numbers work. In Chinese, numbers can be visualzed as bundles of 4 digits: the thousands digit 千, hundreds 百, tens 十, and the units digit: 一 – 九. These four digits will repeat in larger numbers, each bundle of four appearing before a larger multiplier. In Chinese 万 is the first such multiplier.
So as before, to construct more complex numbers starting with 万 simply string along the pairs of unit numbers with their multipliers, going from highest to lowest in a sort of a number train: 54,321 (5,4321) = 五万 + 四千 + 三百 + 二十 + 一.
五万四千三百二十一
54,321 (5,4321) |
|---|
| five | ten-thousands | four | thousand | three | hundred | two | tens | one |
| 五 | 万 | 四 | 千 | 三 | 百 | 二 | 十 | 一 |
| wŭ | wàn | sì | qiān | sān | bǎi | èr | shí | yī |
And we can make larger, more complex numbers up to 99,999,999 (9999,9999), by chaining multiples of 千, 百 and 十 before the 万:
九千八百七十六万
98,760,000 (9876,0000) |
|---|
| nine | thousand | eight | hundred | seventy | six | ten-thousands |
| 九 | 千 | 八 | 百 | 七 | 十 | 六 | 万 |
| jiŭ | qiān | bā | bǎi | qī | shí | liù | wàn |
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