Expressing numbers
In Chinese, numbers can be written in two ways:
1. With Arabic numerals, e.g. 1, 5, 8, .... 2. With Chinese characters, e.g. 一，五，八，。。。
Writing and reading the numbers 0–99
Numbers from 0 to 99 are normally written with the Chinese numerals.
The basic numerals:
零líng0 — zero
一yī1 — one
二èr2 — two
三sān3 — three
四sì4 — four
五wǔ5 — five
六liù6 — six
七qī7 — seven
八bā8 — eight
九jiǔ9 — nine
十shí10 — ten
Writing and reading the numbers 100–10,000
From 100 upwards these units are used:
百bǎihundred
千qiānthousand
万wànten thousand
Examples
100
一百
208
二百零八
999
九百九十九
1000
一千
1528
一千五百二十八
9999
九千九百九十九
Writing and reading the number 2
In Chinese, 2 can be said and written in two ways:
二 (èr)
两 (liǎng)
They are not used in the same places.
二 — èr
二 is normally used in ordinal numbers.
第二
两 — liǎng
两 is normally used before a measure word.
两个