Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Fun &Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com!
嗨大家好,我是李殷如. Hài dà jiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.
Hi everyone, Yinru Li here.
[catchy QUESTION]
Are you good with numbers?
We deal with numbers every day in our daily life. It is crucial for a language learner to be able to say numbers with precision right from the beginning.
In this lesson, you’ll learn numbers in Chinese and how the Chinese number system works.
Single Digit Numbers
Let’s start with the single digit numbers.
零 líng (slow) 零
一 yī (slow) 一
二 èr (slow) 二
三 sān (slow) 三
四 sì (slow) 四
五 wǔ (slow) 五
六 liù (slow) 六
七 qī (slow) 七
八 bā (slow) 八
九 jiǔ (slow) 九
These are the fundamental numbers to make bigger numbers.
10s
Now let’s move on to ten and its mutiples.
"Ten" in Chinese is 十. shí (slow) 十
"Twenty" is two tens, so it’s 二十 èr shí (slow) 二十
How about "thirty"? Three tens. 三十 sān shí (slow) 三十
40? 四十 sì shí (slow) 四十
50?五十 wǔ shí (slow) 五十
60?六十 liù shí (slow) 六十
70?七十 qī shí (slow) 七十
80?八十 bā shí (slow) 八十
90?九十 jiǔ shí (slow) 九十
Double Digit Numbers
At this point, we’re ready to make any two-digit number we want.
Let’s try 11.
11 is 10 and 1, ten is 十, one is 一,
so "eleven" is 十一 shí yī (slow) 十一.
23, which is 20 and 3,
二十三. èr shí sān (slow) 二十三.
45, which is 40 and 5, 四十五 sì shí wǔ (slow) 四十五.
99, which is 90 and 9, 九十九 jiǔ shí jiǔ (slow) 九十九.
Big Numbers
To say numbers bigger than 99, we need to learn a few more words.
百, means "hundred." (slow) 百 bǎi
一百 is "one hundred." (slow)一百 yì bǎi
What is 一百三十七? Let’s break it down.
一百 is "one hundred" 一百, 三十 "thirty" 三十, 七 is "seven",
together 一百三十七 is "one hundred and thirty seven,"
(slow) 一百三十七 yì bǎi sān shí qī .
How do you say 420?
"Four hundred" is 四百, and "twenty" is 二十.
Together 四百二十 sì bǎi èr shí,
"four hundred and twenty,"
(slow) 四百二十.
How about 614? {pause} 六百一十四. liù bǎi yī shí sì.
Notice when the number is three digits or more, we need to say 一十 instead of 十 for teen numbers. We say 六百一十四. liù bǎi yī shí sì, we don’t say 六百十四 liù bǎi shí sì.
918 is 九百一十八 jiǔ bǎi yī shí bā,not 九百十八 jiǔ bǎi shí bā. (slow) 九百一十八
A even bigger number unit is 千,
meaning "thousand," (slow) 千 qiān.
三千 "three thousand"
(slow) 三千 sān qiān
六千七百 "six thousand and seven hundred"
(slow) 六千七百 liù qiān qī bǎi
八千五百一十九 bā qiān wǔ bǎi yī shí jiǔ
八千 "eight thousand" 八千, 五百, "five hundred" 五百, 一十九, "nineteen" 一十九,
together 八千五百一十九 is
"eight thousand five hundred and nineteen".
(slow) 八千五百一十九 .
Ready to go higher? Here are a couple special big number units used in China
First, 万 means "ten thousand," (slow) 万 wàn.
Second, 亿 means "hundred million," 亿 yì.
Now let’s review with a quiz.
How do you say 5 in Chinese?
五 五
How do you say 15 in Chinese?
十五 十五
And how do you say 515 in Chinese?
五百一十五 五百一十五
Now how do you say 50,000 in Chinese?
五万 五万
Great job!
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Thank you for watching! See you next time! 再见!

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