0–10 | Chinese (Mandarin) Grammar

Learn these eleven characters and you have the entire construction set for Chinese numbers. Unlike English — with its irregular "eleven, twelve" and its "-teen / -ty" endings — Chinese builds everything above ten by transparent combination, so 0–10 is genuinely all the raw material you need. The digits are 零 (líng) 0, 一 (yī) 1, 二 (èr) 2, 三 (sān) 3, 四 (sì) 4, 五 (wǔ) 5, 六 (liù) 6, 七 (qī) 7, 八 (bā) 8, 九 (jiǔ) 9, 十 (shí) 10. This page nails down their forms and tones; the 11–99 page shows how they snap together.

The eleven digits

Digit	Character	Pinyin	Note
0	零 / 〇	líng	零 is standard; 〇 is a written shorthand
1	一	yī	one horizontal stroke; changes tone in context
2	二	èr	two strokes; but "two of something" is 两
3	三	sān	three strokes
4	四	sì	falling tone — the 四/十 minimal pair
5	五	wǔ	third tone
6	六	liù
7	七	qī
8	八	bā	a lucky number (sounds like 发 fā, 'prosper')
9	九	jiǔ	third tone
10	十	shí	rising tone — the 四/十 minimal pair

Reciting the run is the fastest way to fix the tones — and note that 一 keeps its plain first tone, yī, when you count: 一二三四五六七八九十 = yī èr sān sì wǔ liù qī bā jiǔ shí.

一二三，茄子！

yī èr sān, qiézi!

One, two, three, cheese! (informal) — 茄子 (eggplant) is what you say for a photo, like 'cheese'.

请数到十。

qǐng shǔ dào shí.

Please count to ten. (neutral)

Stroke logic: the first three are tallies

The characters 一, 二, 三 are among the most transparent in all of Chinese: they are literally one, two, and three horizontal strokes — a tally system frozen into writing. This makes them the easiest characters a beginner ever learns.

The rest are not tallies (an old four-stroke form of "four" existed but was long ago replaced by 四 to avoid confusion). 十 "ten" is worth a second look: it's a single vertical stroke crossing a horizontal one, a complete "+" — read it as the tally reaching a full crossing, the closing of one full count. That cross reappears inside every ten-based number you will build later.

他家门牌号是三十三。

tā jiā ménpái hào shì sānshísān.

Their house number is thirty-three. (neutral) — three 十-crosses stacked into a number.

Watch the tones: 四 (sì) vs 十 (shí)

The single trap that catches every learner is the pair 四 (sì, falling 4th tone) and 十 (shí, rising 2nd tone). At speed, and especially over the phone, they blur — and the stakes are real when you're saying a price, a room number, or a quantity. Native speakers themselves disambiguate by context, by holding up fingers, or by embedding the digit in a longer number (十四 shísì "fourteen" vs 四十 sìshí "forty" are easier to tell apart than the bare digits).

是十四还是四十？

shì shísì háishì sìshí?

Is it fourteen or forty? (informal) — the exact confusion Chinese speakers guard against.

💡

Drill 四 (sì, tone falling like a firm "no") against 十 (shí, tone rising like a question) out loud, in pairs, every day for a week. This one contrast causes more real-world number errors than anything else in the language.

The 二 / 两 split for "two"

The number 2 has two spoken forms, and choosing between them is a genuine feature of Chinese, not an accident. Use 二 (èr) when you are reciting the digit — counting, phone numbers, years, room numbers, and (as you'll see) inside larger numbers like 十二 and 二十. Use 两 (liǎng) when you mean "two of something," directly before a measure word: 两个人, 两杯咖啡, 两天.

服务员，两杯咖啡，谢谢。

fúwùyuán, liǎng bēi kāfēi, xièxie.

Waiter, two coffees please. (informal) — 'two of something' → 两, before the measure word 杯.

今年是二零二六年。

jīnnián shì èr líng èr liù nián.

This year is 2026. (neutral) — a year is read digit by digit, so 二 and 零, not 两.

The full rules for the split live on the 两 vs 二 page.

💡

One slogan settles most cases: 二 to count, 两 to quantify. Reciting a figure (digits, years, room numbers, and the tens like 二十) uses 二; putting "two of something" in front of a measure word uses 两 (两个, 两杯, 两天).

Zero: 零 and 〇

Zero has two written forms. 零 (líng) is the standard character, used everywhere. 〇 is a circular shorthand you'll see for years and serial numbers (二〇二六年). Both are read líng. When 0 sits inside a larger number as a placeholder — like the middle of 105 (一百零五) — 零 does special work covered on the zero in the middle page.

房间号是零零七。

fángjiān hào shì líng líng qī.

The room number is 007. (informal) — spoken digit by digit, each 0 is líng.

我的密码是三个八。

wǒ de mìmǎ shì sān ge bā.

My password is three eights. (informal) — reading a digit as a repeated figure.

A cultural note: lucky and unlucky digits

Two digits carry strong associations worth knowing. 四 (sì) sounds close to 死 (sǐ, "death"), so it's avoided — many Chinese buildings skip a 4th floor or room numbers with 4, exactly like Western buildings skipping 13. 八 (bā) sounds like 发 (fā, as in 发财 "get rich"), so it's prized — phone numbers and licence plates full of 8s sell at a premium.

这层楼没有四号房间。

zhè céng lóu méiyǒu sì hào fángjiān.

This floor has no room number four. (neutral) — 四 sounds like 'death', so it's often skipped.

Optional: one-handed number gestures

Chinese has a single-hand gesture system for 1–10, handy in noisy markets. 1–5 are just that many fingers. Then: 6 — thumb and pinky out (a "call me" shape); 7 — fingertips pinched together; 8 — thumb and index out in an L; 9 — index finger curled into a hook; 10 — a fist, or two index fingers crossed to mimic the 十 cross. You don't need these to speak, but you'll see them constantly.

Common Mistakes

1. Using 二 before a measure word. For "two of something," it's 两, not 二.

❌ 二杯水

Wrong — before a measure word 'two' is 两.

✅ 两杯水

liǎng bēi shuǐ.

two glasses of water

2. Confusing 四 (sì) and 十 (shí) in speech. They are a minimal pair distinguished only by tone — 四 falls, 十 rises. Keep them straight or a price and a room number go wrong.

❌ 把「四」念成第二声。

Wrong — 四 is sì (falling 4th tone); the rising 2nd tone belongs to 十 (shí).

✅ 十四和四十差得远呢。

shísì hé sìshí chà de yuǎn ne.

Fourteen and forty are worlds apart. — drill 十四 (shísì) against 四十 (sìshí).

3. Using 两 to recite a plain digit. For a year, phone number, or room number you read the figure as 二, not 两 — 两 is only for "two of something" before a measure word.

❌ 我的房间号是两零两。

Wrong — recited digits use 二: 二零二.

✅ 我的房间号是二零二。

wǒ de fángjiān hào shì èr líng èr.

My room number is 202. — digits are read 二, not 两.

4. Reading a year as a quantity. Years are read digit by digit, not as a number's value.

❌ 两千零二十六年

Wrong — a year isn't read as the quantity 'two-thousand-and-twenty-six' (两千零二十六); it's read digit by digit: 二零二六年 (èr líng èr liù nián).

✅ 二零二六年

èr líng èr liù nián

the year 2026 (read 'two-zero-two-six')

Key Takeaways

The eleven digits 零一二三四五六七八九十 are the complete building set for every larger number.
一, 二, 三 are literally one, two, and three strokes; 十 is the "+" cross that reappears in all ten-based numbers.
The classic trap is 四 (sì, falling) vs 十 (shí, rising) — drill the tone contrast.
二 to count, 两 to quantify: recite the digit as 二, but say 两 directly before a measure word (两个, 两杯).
Zero is 零 (or the shorthand 〇), read líng; 一 keeps its plain first tone when you count.

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