Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

nuMberS

6.2

6.2.3 ‘zero’ as a placeholder

The word ○/零 líng may be used when the ‘hundreds’ place or the ‘tens’ place is empty,

provided there is a number before and after ○/零 líng. For example, it can be used to mark

the ‘hundreds’ place when the thousands and tens are filled, as in the following number.

7,066 七千 零 六十 六

qī qiān líng liù shí liù

It can be used to mark the ‘tens’ place when the hundreds and single numbers are filled, as in

the following number.

9,102 九千 一百 ○ 二

jiǔ qiān yī bǎi líng èr

When two consecutive places are empty, ○/零 líng occurs only once.

6,006 六千 零 六

liù qiān líng liù

6.2.4 Forming numbers 10,000 to 100,000,000

Languages read numbers in terms of the categories that they distinguish. English distinguishes

tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and up. Numbers between one thousand and one million

are read in terms of the numbers of thousands that they contain.

Chinese distinguishes the categories of tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, and hundred millions.

Numbers between ten thousand and one-hundred million are read in terms of the number of ten-

thousands that they contain. Compare the way that English and Chinese read the following numbers.

English Chinese

1,000 one thousand 一千 yī qiān

one thousand

10,000 ten thousand 一万/一萬 yī wàn

one ten-thousand

100,000 one hundred thousand 十万/十萬 shí wàn

ten ten-thousands

1,000,000 one million 百万/百萬 bǎi wàn

one hundred ten-thousands

10,000,000 ten million 千万/千萬 qiān wàn

one thousand ten-thousands

100,000,000 one hundred million 亿/億 yì

1,000,000,000 one billion 十亿/十億 shí yì

ten one hundred-millions

Observe how these numbers are read in Chinese.

亿/億 万/萬 千 百 十

yì wàn qiān bǎi shí

25,250 两万 五千 二百 五十

兩萬 wǔqiān èrbǎi wǔshí

liǎng wàn

225,250 二十二万 五千 二百 五十

二十二萬 wǔqiān èrbǎi wǔshí

èrshí’èr wàn