What are the Chinese numbers one to ten?

Pronunciation

Watch the tones: yī(1) èr(4) sān(1) sì(4) wǔ(3) liù(4) qī(1) bā(1) jiǔ(3) shí(2). 一 (yī) is special — on its own it is first tone, but before another syllable it changes: yì before most tones, yí before a fourth tone (e.g. 一个 yí ge).

How to use it

• •Eleven to nineteen are simply “ten + digit”: 11 is 十一 (shí yī), 12 十二 (shí èr), up to 19 十九 (shí jiǔ).
• •Twenty to ninety-nine are “digit + ten + digit”: 20 二十 (èr shí), 25 二十五 (èr shí wǔ), 99 九十九 (jiǔ shí jiǔ).
• •So once you know one to ten, you can already say every number up to ninety-nine.

Common mistakes

• ▸Forgetting the 一 (yī) tone change before another word — 一个 is “yí ge”, not “yī ge”.
• ▸Confusing 四 (sì, 4) and 十 (shí, 10), which sound similar to beginners. The tones are different — 四 falls, 十 rises — and getting them wrong genuinely changes the number.
• ▸Reading 二 (èr) where 两 (liǎng) is needed. For counting quantities of things Chinese uses 两 (liǎng) rather than 二 — “two people” is 两个人, not 二个人.

Cultural context

Numbers carry luck in Chinese culture because they sound like other words. 四 (sì, four) sounds like 死 (sǐ, death), so it is avoided — many buildings skip the 4th, 14th and 24th floors. 八 (bā, eight) sounds like 发 (fā) as in 发财 “to get rich”, so it is prized: phone numbers and licence plates full of eights sell at a premium. There is also a one-handed set of finger gestures for one to ten, so a market trader can quote a price across a noisy stall without saying a word.