Big Numbers In Chinese

Contents 目录目錄 hide

1. Big Numbers In Chinese

2. A main Difference

3. Numbers in Chinese Categories

4. From Numbers to Chinese

5. How to Write A Large Number in Chinese Characters

6. Numbers in Chinese

7. Simplified Chinese Version Infographic

8. Traditional Chinese Version Infographic

9. Big Numbers in Chinese Can-do checklist:

Big numbers in Chinese are confusing if you think in English terms. In this infographic, we teach you everything you need to know about big numbers in Chinese.

A main Difference

In English, we place the comma at every 3 digits, or say every 3 digits in a group.

But in Chinese, we place the comma at every 4 digits, or say every 4 digits in a group.

Numbers in Chinese Categories

A big number (we only talk about a number 16 digits or less) can fall into 4 categories, each category contains 4 digits, while each digit corresponds to a name.

“Small numbers category”, including “个 gè, ones” “十 shí, tens” “百 bǎi, hundreds” and “千 qiān, thounsands.“
“万 Wàn category”,
“亿 Yì category”, and
“兆 Zhào category”.

We made a table to show you the relationship and difference when talking about huge numbers in Chinese.

The columns from left to right are Number, Short scale name in English, Chinese character and pinyin, and Chinese name literal translation to English.

Every 4 digits in a category, the big numbers in Chinese will look like the list below:

Number	Short scale name in English	Chinese character and pinyin	Chinese name literal translation to English
0	Zero	〇 Líng	Zero
10	Ten	十 shí	Ten
100	One Hundred	一百 Yī bǎi	One Hundred
1000	One Thousand	一千 Yī qiān	One Thousand
1,0000	Ten Thousand	一万 Yī wàn	Ten Thousand*
10,0000 = 10^5	One-Hundred Thousand	十万 Shí wàn	Ten Ten-Thousand
100,0000 = 10^6	One Million	一百万 Yī bǎi wàn	One-Hundred Ten-thousand
1000,0000 = 10^7	Ten Million	一千万 Yī Qiān wàn	One-Thousand Ten-thousand
1,0000,0000 = 10^8	One-Hundred Million	一亿 Yī Yì	One-Hundred Million
10,0000,0000 = 10^9	One Billion	十亿 Shí Yì	Ten One-Hundred Million
100,0000,0000 = 10^10	Ten Billion	一百亿 Yī bǎi Yì	One-Hundred One-Hundred Million
1000,0000,0000 = 10^11	One-Hundred Billion	一千亿 Yī Qiān yì	One-Thousand One-Hundred Million
1,0000,0000,0000 = 10^12	One Trillion	一兆 Yī zhào	One Trillion
10,0000,0000,0000 = 10^13	Ten Trillion	十兆 Shí zhào	Ten Trillion
100,0000,0000,0000 = 10^14	One-Hundred Trillion	一百兆 Yī bǎi zhào	One-Hundred Trillion
1000,0000,0000,0000 = 10^15	One Quadrillion	一千兆 Yī Qiān zhào	One-Thousand Trillion
1,0000,0000,0000,0000 = 10^16	Ten Quadrillion	一京 Yī jīng	One Jing
1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 = 10^20	One-Hundred Quintillion	一垓 Yī gāi	One Gai
1,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000,0000 = 10^24	One Septillion	一秭 Yī zǐ	One Septillion

If you see the breakdown below, it makes more clearly the difference of large numbers between English and Chinese

From Numbers to Chinese

Following this, we show you how to write a big number in Chinese characters and how to say it.

For instance,

You see a number “7915348“

Step 1: Write down the numbers in numerals (just the numbers)

Step 2: Place comma at every 4 digits. “791,5348“

Step 3: The first 3 numbers are 791, which you will say 七百九十一. And it is under “万 Wàn Category” So we combine them as “七百九十一万”

Step 4: The last 4 numbers are 5348, which you will say 五千三百四十八.

Step 5: Combine step 3 & 4, this is how you say this number 七百九十一万五千三百四十八

How to Write A Large Number in Chinese Characters

Next, we teach you how to write the number down from hearing it in Chinese. See the example in the infographic below.

Step 1: Write down the numbers in Chinese character or pinyin. 九十八万七千一百二十 jiǔ shí bā wàn qī qiān yī bǎi èr shí

Step 2: Find if there is/are “万” “亿”, “兆” in the number (Find the names of the category) 九十八万七千一百二十

Step 3: Separate them by small numbers, “万” “亿” and “兆”. In this case, the number is separated into two groups.

Group 1: 九十八万

Group 2: 七千一百二十

Step 4: The first group you see the characters are “九十八”, you know that is “98” (don’t worry about “万” here. It is for the category)

Step 5: The second group you see the characters are “七千一百二十”. You know that is “7120”.

Step 6: Combine step 4 & 5, this is how you write the number 987120.

Numbers in Chinese

We have made a comprehend article about Chinese Numbers. If you are studying for Chinese Numbers, that is a must-read article. We walk through how to say the numbers from 0 to 1000 and EVERTHING you need to know about “numbers in Chinese.”

Simplified Chinese Version Infographic

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Traditional Chinese Version Infographic