Chinese Numbers Explained

Before we move on with more practical applications, let’s look at expressing parts of numbers: decimals, fractions and percentages. You may have noticed in the previous section on money we saw some numbers with decimal points in them, but we didn’t use the general expression for decimal numbers

小数

xiǎo shù

in those special cases. In the general case to read a decimal number you use

点

diǎn

to separate the whole and fractional parts, read the whole part of the number as usual, and then just read the digits after the decimal individually: That’s really all there is to reading decimal numbers, very straightforward! Fractions on the other hand, are another beast...

Expressing fractions -

分

fēn

- are tricky because the numbers are spoken in reverse order compared to English. While in English the numerator (number on top) comes before the denominator (number on the bottom), in Chinese they are given in reverse order. Fractions and percentages are both expressed in the same way, using the expression

分之

fēn zhī

to separate the two numbers, with the denominator coming first and the numerator last. It’s difficult to translate these phrases word-for-word from Chinese to English, but it might help to think of the Chinese structure like this: 2/3’s = “(the whole has) three parts with two (of the fractional parts)”. Here are some examples: Note that to say ‘one-half’ (1/2) you can also just use the word for “one half”:

一半

yī bàn

For any other fraction you need to use the standard pattern: You can also express a fraction where the numerator is greater than the denominator, such as 4/3’s ‘four-thirds’, using the same structure, just remember to put the denominator first, and don’t be fooled when you hear this number, it’s *not* 3/4’s: For compound numbers with a both a whole and a fractional part (e.g. “One and one-half”), use

又

yòu

to combine them: Expressing a percentage is essentially the same is expressing a fraction where the denominator is always 100:

百分之	bǎi fēn zhī

And that’s all there is to decimals, fractions and percentages!

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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.