Last Updated on August 15, 2017
[lastupdated]
In order to count from 1 to 100 in Mandarin Chinese, one only needs to know how to say the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 100.The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 100 all have their own Chinese Characters. Once you know those numbers, then you can make all other numbers from 11 to 99 in Mandarin Chinese.
1 一 yi1
2 二 er4
3 三 san1
4 四 si4
5 五 wu3
6 六 liu4
7 七 qi1
8 八 ba1
9 九 jiu3
10 十 shi2
100 百 bai3
From 1 to 10, you literally just say the word for the character. Beyond that, you simply group numbers according to tens and then ones like you probably learned in basic mathematics. There are no special “teen” numbers like in English which are their own special words, like eleven, twelve, thirteen, and so on in Chinese.
To count from 11 to 19, you just add 十 plus the ones place of the number. So for example, 11 is 十一. Fifteen is 十五. Eighteen is 十八. And nineteen is 十九. From 20 to 99, you simply group the number first by its tens place, and then by its ones place. For example, 21 is 二十一. 32 is 三十二. 55 is 五十五. 99 is 九十九.
11 is 十一 (literally 10 1)
12 is 十二 (literally 10 2)
20 is 二十 (literally 2 ten). You can think of it as 2 tens when thinking of grouping numbers.
30 is 三十 (literally 3 ten).
31 is 三十一 literally three ten one. You can think of it as 3 tens and a 1.
45 is 四十五 （literally 4 ten five). You can think of it as 4 tens 5 ones.
99 is 九十九 (literally 9 ten 9). You can think of it as 9 tens and 9 ones. Finally, for 100, the character is 100. To say 100, you just say yī bǎi 一百).
You can use our tool for converting numbers to Chinese Characters here to practice Chinese numbers.