零 in the Middle (一百零五) | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

Building a number by stacking place words works cleanly — until one of the places is empty. English glides right over an empty place: "one hundred five," "one thousand one," no zero spoken. Chinese cannot do that, because skipping the place word would collapse the number into a different value. Instead, an internal gap is marked out loud with 零 (líng) "zero." This single small syllable carries real information — leave it out and 105 turns into 150 — so it repays getting exactly right. The rules are just three, and they are fully regular.

Rule 1: an internal zero must be spoken as 零

If any place between two non-zero digits is empty, you say 零 to flag the gap, then continue. The classic case is a hundreds number with nothing in the tens: 105 is 一百零五 (yìbǎi líng wǔ), "one hundred, zero, five."

Value	Chinese	Pinyin
105	一百零五	yìbǎi líng wǔ
101	一百零一	yìbǎi líng yī
1,001	一千零一	yìqiān líng yī
1,005	一千零五	yìqiān líng wǔ
1,020	一千零二十	yìqiān líng èrshí
3,050	三千零五十	sānqiān líng wǔshí
10,001	一万零一	yíwàn líng yī

这本书一共一百零五页。

zhè běn shū yígòng yìbǎi líng wǔ yè

This book is 105 pages in total.

我的房间号是一千零一。

wǒ de fángjiān hào shì yìqiān líng yī

My room number is 1001.

Look at 1,020 = 一千零二十: the hundreds place is empty (so 零), and then the tens place is filled with 二十. Note it is 二十, not 两十 — inside a number the tens digit is always 二, not 两. Contrast 1,002 = 一千零二 (yìqiān líng èr): here only the units place is filled, so after 零 you say just 二.

他家的门牌号是三千零五十。

tā jiā de ménpái hào shì sānqiān líng wǔshí

His house number is 3050.

Rule 2: a run of zeros collapses to a single 零

Here is the elegant part. No matter how many empty places sit in a row, you say 零 exactly once. You never stack 零零. So 10,005 — where the thousands, hundreds, and tens are all empty — is 一万零五 (yíwàn líng wǔ), a single 零 covering all three gaps.

这次活动来了一万零五个人。

zhè cì huódòng lái le yíwàn líng wǔ ge rén

10,005 people came to this event.

中国有一亿零一百万人在用这个软件。

Zhōngguó yǒu yíyì líng yìbǎi wàn rén zài yòng zhège ruǎnjiàn

A hundred and one million people in China use this app.

💡

The mental model: 零 is not a digit you count — it's a single "there's a gap here" signal. One continuous gap, however wide, gets one 零. The moment a non-zero digit reappears, you resume naming places normally.

Rule 3: trailing zeros are silent (and the last place word can drop)

Zeros at the end of a number — with no non-zero digit after them — are never voiced, because there is no gap to flag; the number just stops. So 150 is 一百五十 (yìbǎi wǔshí), and 1,500 is 一千五百 (yìqiān wǔbǎi), with no 零 anywhere. In casual speech you can even drop the final, now-obvious place word: 一百五 (yìbǎi wǔ) for 150, 一千五 (yìqiān wǔ) for 1,500.

这条裤子一百五。

zhè tiáo kùzi yìbǎi wǔ

These trousers are 150 (yuan). (informal — 一百五 for 一百五十)

这个手机两千八。

zhège shǒujī liǎngqiān bā

This phone is 2,800 (yuan). (informal shorthand for 两千八百)

This is exactly why Rule 1 matters so much. 一百五 means 150, not 105. The presence or absence of 零 is the only thing separating them:

一百零五和一百五十是两个数。

yìbǎi líng wǔ hé yìbǎi wǔshí shì liǎng ge shù

105 and 150 are two different numbers.

One more contrast worth flagging: this "collapse the zeros" rule is for reading a number as a quantity. When you read a year, phone number, or room code digit by digit, every zero is voiced individually as 零 (or its variant 〇). The year 2020 read out is 二〇二〇年 (èr líng èr líng nián) — two spoken zeros — but the quantity 2,020 is 两千零二十 (liǎngqiān líng èrshí), with a single collapsed 零. Same digits, different reading mode.

Common Mistakes

1. Dropping the internal 零. This is the error that silently changes the value.

❌ 一百五

Wrong value for 105 — 一百五 means 150. For 105 you must say 一百零五.

✅ 一百零五

yìbǎi líng wǔ

105 — the 零 marks the empty tens place.

2. Repeating 零 for each zero. A run of zeros takes only one 零.

❌ 一万零零五

Incorrect for 10,005 — never stack 零; say 一万零五.

✅ 一万零五

yíwàn líng wǔ

10,005 — one 零 covers all the empty places.

3. Voicing a trailing zero. Final zeros are silent; there is no gap to flag.

❌ 三百零

Incorrect for 300 — a trailing zero isn't spoken. 300 is just 三百.

✅ 三百

sānbǎi

300.

4. Using 两 after 零 in the tens or units. Inside a number, "two" is 二.

❌ 一千零两十

Incorrect for 1,020 — the tens digit is 二, so 一千零二十.

✅ 一千零二十

yìqiān líng èrshí

1,020.

Key Takeaways

An internal zero (a gap between non-zero digits) must be voiced as 零: 105 = 一百零五, 1,001 = 一千零一.
A run of consecutive internal zeros collapses to a single 零: 10,005 = 一万零五.
Trailing zeros are silent, and the last place word may be dropped colloquially: 150 = 一百五十 → 一百五.
The 零 is load-bearing: 一百零五 (105) vs 一百五 (150) differ only by that syllable.
Reading digit-by-digit (years, phone numbers) voices every zero — 二〇二〇年 — unlike the collapsed quantity reading 两千零二十.

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