Counting to ten in Mandarin Chinese
One to ten, for prices, platforms, rooms and how many beers. Play the ten Mandarin Chinese words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Mandarin Chinese phrases in this lesson
- 一ee
- One
- 二ar
- Two
- 三san
- Three
- 四suh
- Four
- 五woo
- Five
- 六lyoh
- Six
- 七chee
- Seven
- 八bah
- Eight
- 九jyoh
- Nine
- 十shir
- Ten
The simplest character in the language: one stroke. Chinese number gestures go to ten on one hand; six is thumb and pinky out, the "hang loose" sign. Vendors flash these constantly.
Èr for counting and phone numbers, liǎng (lyang) before things: two people is liǎng ge rén. The one genuine number trap in Mandarin; see the ordering lesson.
Three strokes. One, two, three are literally one, two, three lines: the writing system easing you in before the character for "biang biang noodles" needs 58 strokes.
Sounds like the word for death, so four is unlucky: buildings skip fourth floors and phone numbers with 4 are cheaper. Eight sounds like wealth, so 8 is gold: license plates with 8888 sell for fortunes.
Sounds like 流 (lyoh), to flow smoothly, so it is a lucky number.
The luckiest number, because it sounds like 发 (fah), to prosper.
Sounds like 久 (jyoh), long-lasting.
The system is perfectly logical: eleven is shí-yī (ten one), twenty èr-shí (two ten), ninety-nine jiǔ-shí-jiǔ. Learn eleven words, count to ninety-nine. No language does numbers cleaner.