Chinese Numbers Explained

Huge Numbers

Back: Ten Thousands
亿
This will be a short section just to introduce two more powers of 万, the first is a hundred million, 万 * 万 =
亿yì
, = 100,000,000 (or 1,0000,0000). The number 亿 follows all the same rules as 万, so you form numbers the same way as before. To make numbers bigger than 亿, use 千, 百, and 十 together in front of the 亿, to form numbers up to nine hundred ninety nine billion, nine hundred ninety nine million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine: 999,999,999,999 (or 9999,9999,9999).
九千九百九十九 * 亿 (9999 * 1,0000,0000)
九千九百九十九 * 万 (9999 * 1,0000)
九千九百九十九 (9999)
兆
Finally, let's end with one trillion:
兆zhào
= 1012 = 1,000,000,000,000 (1,0000,0000,0000). This is the largest number you are likely to encounter in everyday, non-specialized contexts. With this number and the smaller multiples we can go up to the quadrillions: 兆 * 千 = a trillion times a thousand: one quadrillion = 1015. As with 亿, we can go even higher using multiples of 千, 百, and 十 with 兆: 9999 * 兆 + 9999 * 亿 + 9999 * 万, + 9999 = 9999,9999,9999,9999. Try reading this number aloud:
九千九百九十九兆 九千九百九十九亿 九千九百九十九万 九千九百九十九
Breaking it down:
九千九百九十九 * 兆 (9999 * 1,0000,0000,0000)
九千九百九十九 * 亿 (9999 * 1,0000,0000)
九千九百九十九 * 万 (9999 * 1,0000)
九千九百九十九 (9999)

A Brief Theoretical Digression

top
It is worth taking a short detour here to explore how large numbers are constructed in a language. Pretty much all human languages express numbers as combinations of multiples of ten. First you have the unit numbers – the "ones" – and then the "tens", the "hundreds", the "thousands", etc. Notice these are all distinct, unique words representing different multiples of ten. Generally languages will use unique names for multiples of ten in the first few places: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands. Theoretically you could use a unique name for every multiple of ten, just keep making up new names for each decimal place. For a number with twenty places you'd have twenty unique names to remember! But most languages do something different, at some point they start reusing the lower multiples: multiplying them together to make larger multiples. English does it after you reach the thousands: after "one thousand" we say "ten thousand", and then "hundred thousand". But after a hundred thousand we don't say a "thousand thousand", instead we introduce another unique name: million. With this system we still need unique names for larger powers of ten, but at least you don't have to have one for every single decimal place, only one new name every 3 places: thousands, millions, billions, trillions, etc. The only difference in Chinese is that the thousands unit is reused in larger numbers, too, so Chinese numbers have repeating groups of four places, and thus you only need a unique name for every multiple of ten thousand. So while we have names for thousand, million, billion and trillion, in Chinese it's only 万, 亿 and 兆. This table illustrates the multiples of 10 up to one quadrillion, see if you can spot the pattern:
The Powers of 10 up to a Quadrillion
1one一yī
10ten十shí
100hundred百bǎi
1,000thousand千qiān
104ten thousand万wàn
105hundred thousand十万shí wàn
106million百万bǎi wàn
107ten million千万qiān wàn
108hundred million亿yì
109billion十亿shí yì
1010ten billion百亿bǎi yì
1011hundred billion千亿qiān yì
1012trillion兆zhào
1013ten trillion十兆shí zhào
1014hundred trillion百兆bǎi zhào
1015quadrillion千兆qiān zhào
top
Next: Money!

Follow

Share

Download

Chinese Numbers App Logo
Chinese Numbers for iPhone & iPad lets you practice numbers and counting anytime, anywhere you are. Has two modes to input numbers and a challenging game to test your translation skills.
Copyright © 2020 David Richmond