When learning a new language, one of the most important things is to get the numbers down. Whether you’re telling a new acquaintance how old you are, figuring out bus routes, ordering food in a restaurant, paying for a taxi, or bargaining in a local market, you’ll be totally lost without a firm grasp of the numbers. Here’s an easy to follow chart showing you how to count to 1,000 in Chinese:

One great thing about learning Chinese numbers is that you only need to learn 12 characters to get you all the way to 999. Let’s examine some things from the chart to give you a better understanding of how to count in Chinese.

• Notice that 11 is 十一. That’s 十 (ten) and 一 (one) together. This will help you get up to 19, which is 十九, or 十 (ten) and 九 (nine) together.
• Next, let’s look at 20, which is 二十, or 二 (two) and 十 (ten) together. Two tens makes twenty. If you want to count from 21-29, simply add the characters 1-9 to 二十. For 21, we get 二十一. That’s two, ten, and one together.
• This format can be followed to get you all the way to 99. For example, 三十, or 三 (three) and 十 (ten) together is 30. What do you think 九十九 is? Well, that’s nine, ten, and nine together…. it’s 99!
• Now we’re all the way up to 100, or 一百. One thing that should be noted with 100 is the different pronunciation of the character 一, meaning one. On its own, 一 is pronounced with the first tone (yī). However, when it precedes a character that is pronounced with a first, second, or third tone, it changes to the fourth tone (yì).
• For the numbers 101-109, you use 一百 plus 零 (zero), and then the appropriate character for numbers 1-9. For example, 一百零一 is 101. Adding the character for zero is important, otherwise you may confuse people. This is because…
• For 110, 120, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180, or 190, Chinese usually leave out the character 十 (ten). Technically, 110 should be 一百一十, but people usually just say 一百一. That’s why it’s important to use 零 for 101-109.
• Looking at 125, which is 一百二十五, you can see everything we’ve talked about so far together. That is 一百 (one hundred,) 二十 (twenty), and 五 (five) all together.
• With 200, there are two different pronunciations – 二百 (èr bǎi) and 两百 (liǎng bǎi). Both are OK.
• It’s important to note that the number 250, which is 二百五, is also an insult in Chinese. If you call someone an 二百五, you’re basically telling them that they’re a good for nothing idiot. I wrote a post about this a few months ago, check it out.
• Armed with this knowledge, you’re ready to count all the way up to 999. Can you guess what that is??…
• It’s 九百九十九 – 九百 (nine hundred), 九十 (ninety), and 九 (nine). It’s that easy!
• Alright, now we’re all the way to 1000 – 一千. Now take what you’ve learned in this post, and you can figure out how to count all the way up to 9,999 on your own!
• Speaking of learning Chinese on your own, just how good is your Chinese? Test yourself for free!