一日三秋。

“One day (seems like) three autumns.”

-Chinese Proverb

Introduction

Once we reach the number ten, we will start using the same ten symbols for all of the numbers. For example, eleven comes after ten, so you would use the symbol for ‘ten’ behind the symbol for ‘one’ to represent eleven.

We will use this system from the number eleven all the way up until the number ninety-nine. After that, we will have a new symbol to represent one-hundred.

In this post, we will go over the symbol for ten and how we use it to represent the ‘ten’s digits’. We will also go over the ‘Hundred’s’ symbol and the symbol for zero, as well as how to speak and write them.

The Number Ten

shí，【十】，Ten

Spell it as:
s-h-í

(Two Strokes)

十 means ten in chinese. It’s very easy to write especially if you think about it as simply a ‘t’ for ten. That’s how I remembered it and it was quite honestly the easiest Chinese symbol for me to memorize on top of 一，二，and 三。

Below is a video on how to speak and write it.

How to speak and write 十。

Numbers Beyond Ten

One through ten is the easy part, not saying that beyond ten is difficult, but it’s a little difficult compared to the singular numbers themselves. When we pass ten, we basically just use the symbols for 1-10 over and over.

Here is an example of the structure of the numbers beyond ten. the number eleven, for example. would be translated in english as 10+1, be written in Pinyin as shíyī【十一】Twelve would follow the same structure as 10+2, shí’èr【十二】。

When we get to twenty, we use the ‘Ten’s digit’ first to represent the ‘2’ in twenty, so twenty would be translated to english as 2+10, A.K.A. èrshí【二十】Twenty-One would be written as 2+10+1, A.K.A. èrshíyī【二十一】Thirty would translate to 3+10, A.K.A. sānshí【三十】and it would go on like that.

If you would like a more in depth view on the numbers beyond ten, then check out this page. On the page linked I will be going through and typing out all the numbers that I can. I will make it pretty far I assume it just may take quite a while.

The Number 100

bǎi，【百】， One Hundred

Spell it as:
b-ǎ-i

(Six Strokes)

When we make it to one hundred, there are two ways to write one hundred. The most common way being yìbǎi【一百】。 Al though one could simply use the symbol 百 to represent “Hundred”. We will talk about how to use the zero symbol for 101-109 in the next section.

Below is a video on how to speak and write the ‘Hundreds’ symbol.

The Number Zero

líng，【零】，Zero

Spell it as:
l–í-n-g

(Thirteen Strokes)

Zero would be used for numbers were there is a zero between the primary and final number. Numbers like 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, etc. all the way up until 109. The corresponding numbers in Chinese would be written as

  • 101= 1+100+0+1= 一白零一
  • 102= 1+100+0+2= 一百零二
  • 103= 1+100+0+3= 一百零三
  • 104= 1+100+0+4= 一百零四
  • 105= 1+100+0+5= 一百零无

Below is a video on how to speak and write the ‘Zero’ symbol

You only need to use 零 to represent zero if there is a zero somewhere in the middle of the numbers, such as 101, 1,001, etc.