chinese numbers

Numbers and Time Words in Chinese

Posted on by tiffany

Chinese Vocabulary · 中文词汇

Numbers and Time Words in Chinese

数字与时间词汇 shùzì yǔ shíjiān cíhuì

In Chinese culture, not all numbers are treated equally — some are lucky enough to raise a phone number’s resale price, and others are avoided in hospital elevators.

The numbers everyone counts with

Number Words in Chinese

ChinesePinyinNumber
零líng0
一yī1
二èr2
三sān3
四sì4
五wǔ5
六liù6
七qī7
八bā8
九jiǔ9
十shí10
十一shíyī11
十二shí’èr12
二十èrshí20
三十五sānshíwǔ35
六十八liùshíbā68
九十三jiǔshísān93
百bǎi100
千qiān1,000
万wàn10,000

八 bā

Sounds almost like 发 (fā), “to prosper.” Phone numbers and license plates full of 8s sell at a premium, and the Beijing Olympics opened at exactly 8:08pm on 08/08/2008 — no coincidence.

四 sì

Sounds like 死 (sǐ), “death.” Many hospitals and hotels skip the 4th floor entirely, and restaurants will announce “3+1 is coming” rather than say “four” out loud.

A small but useful detail: when reading out a phone number in China, 一 (yī) is read as “yāo” instead — this avoids confusion with 七 (qī, seven) over the phone. So a number like 0102-361-XXX is read:
líng yāo líng èr – sān liù yāo – XXX

Telling time in Chinese

Time Words in Chinese

Chinese Pinyin English Korean Japanese
点(钟) diǎn (zhōng) o’clock 시 時
分 fēn minute 분 分
分钟 fēnzhōng minutes 분 分間
半 bàn half 반 半
小时 xiǎoshí hour 시간 時間
早上 zǎoshang morning 아침 朝
上午 shàngwǔ A.M. 오전 午前
中午 zhōngwǔ noon 정오 正午
下午 xiàwǔ afternoon 오후 午後
晚上 wǎnshang evening 저녁 夜
现在 xiànzài now 지금 今
以前 yǐqián before 이전 以前
以后 yǐhòu after 이후 以後

Putting it all together

Examples

我wǒ早上zǎoshang8点diǎn吃chī早饭zǎofàn I eat breakfast at 8:00 am.

💡 Notice that 早上 (the time word) comes before the verb 吃早饭 — in Chinese, time words are placed before the action, not after like in English. Read more in Chinese Sentence Structure.

他tā来lái台湾Táiwān以前yǐqián很hěn怕pà狗gǒu He was afraid of dogs before he came to Taiwan.

A1 Numbers and Time Words in Chinese

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