Numbers 數 / 数 (shù) - counting 1-99
For this lesson, let’s learn to count in Chinese!
數 Simplified: 数 (shù) is the Chinese word for “number”. When pronounced with the third tone (shǔ) [Citation needed], the same character means “to count”. And when combined with the word for “learn” or “study”, 數學 Simplified: 数学 (shùxué) is the term for “Mathematics”.
In the last lesson, we already learned the numbers 1-10, which are the same in Traditional and Simplified Chinese:
- 一 (yī) one
- 二 (èr) two, when counting or specifying order
- 三 (sān) three
- 四 (sì) four
- 五 (wǔ) five
- 六 (liù) six
- 七 (qī) seven
- 八 (bā) eight
- 九 (jiǔ) nine
- 十 (shí) ten
Chinese numbers work similarly to Arabic numerals in the decimal system. That is, to get 11, we just put together 10 and 1, or 十一 (shíyī). How do you think we would write 15?
To get 20, we put 2 and 10 together, that is 二十 (èrshí). To get 21, that’s 2 10’s and 1, or 二十一 (èrshíyī). With this system, you can easily count to 99!
I was considering typing out all the numbers to completely illustrate, but I’ll just link to this post from https://blogs.transparent.com instead, which goes all the way to 100, 一百 (yìbǎi), and even throws in the number zero, 零 (líng) for no extra charge!
And there you have it, counting in Chinese is as easy as 一二三！
Change log:
- Added “Citation needed” comment for pronunciation of 數 (shǔ) “to count” - as per google translate, it is still pronounced with the 4th tone (shù).
- Edited with dreamtimer.sourceforge.io/endecoder/