<p>I'm a native speaker. I'll read "我(wo) 想(xiang) 要(yao) 三(san) 百(bai) 二(er) 十(shi) 一(yi) 個(ge) 餃(jiao) 子(zi)".</p>

<p>BTW "321餃子" doesn't make sense. "321個餃子" would be correct because you need the unit "個".</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T18:43:21.583Z
woops.  thanks for your answer. i am struggling with numbers as you can see. so for larger numbers,  such as 1,542,800?
Henry Kingston
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T18:45:32.653Z
一百五十四萬兩千八百 yi bai wu shi si wan liang qian ba bai.
NoobTW
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T18:47:44.033Z
If you want to get familiar to read large number, I have a mnemonic phrase for you: 個(ge), 十(shi), 百(bai), 千(qian), 萬(wan), 十萬, 百萬, 千萬, 億(yi), 十億, 百億, 千億, 兆(zhao)
NoobTW
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-19T08:07:33.660Z
the mandarin pinyin is xiang for 想.
sfy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T18:41:26.497Z
2020-02-19T08:24:33.327Z
2020-02-19T08:24:33.327Z
NoobTW
<p>When reading the number '1,542,811' the first thing I do is count the number of digits from the smallest to the largest. </p>

<p>In this case, I would first count: "個、十、百、千、萬、十萬、百萬" to confirm it is a seven digits number (million).  Then I would read it out in reverse order, from highest to lowest </p>

<p>First read how many '萬' (10000) ; and there are '154 萬' (<strong>一百伍十四萬</strong>)</p>

<p>Then read how many '千' (1000) after that; and there are '2 千' (<strong>二千</strong>)</p>

<p>Then read how many '百' (100)after that; and there are '8 百' (<strong>八百</strong>)</p>

<p>Then read how many '十' (10) after that; and there is '1 十' (<strong>一十</strong>)</p>

<p>Finally read the last single digit, and it is '1' (<strong>一</strong>)</p>

<p>[一百伍十四萬][二千][八百][一十][一] would be the correct reading of '1,542,811'</p>

<p>If it is not an amount but a serial of number (like phone number or document reference number), we can just read each number as it is, so '1542811' would be read as '<strong>一五四二八一一</strong>'</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T19:09:34.960Z
2018-07-24T19:55:00.807Z
2018-07-24T19:55:00.807Z
Tang Ho
<p>Practical and clarity is the key, it is similar to many language way of handling plural. </p>

<ul>
<li><p>321只餃子 only one way to say it : 三百二十一只餃子 , otherwise the listener will confuse whether you want 3 or 2 or 1 餃子</p></li>
<li><p>Phone number , e.g. 712-333-859  you are free to speak out individual number, or mix it. For example, when 333 is to the audience whether it is two 3 or three 3 , you should say, 三百三十三，or 三个三 。 三三三 is not recommended as the audience will definitely want to confirm with 三个三?</p></li>
<li><p>Number 1,542,800 . You may say 一百五十四万二千八百, or individual number : 一五四二八零零; 一五四二八百</p></li>
<li><p>Number 542,800.  This is more interesting. 五十四万二千八百, or use the English convention 五百四十二千八百, or speak out individual number.</p></li>
<li><p>anything more than millions is getting more confusing. 10 millions is always 千万。 100 millions will be 一万万，or 一亿。 But you don't need to touch those number unless you start get use to Chinese numbering convention.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-25T13:48:50.983Z
2018-07-25T14:03:55.980Z
2018-07-25T14:03:55.980Z
mootmoot
<p>Arabic numerals are more like symbols than actual words, and people tend to read them in their native language. So, yes, when Chinese speakers read Arabic numbers, they read in Chinese.</p>

<p>Learning the numbers is hard, no matter what language you are dealing with. Chinese actually has a rather straightforward system, without numbers changing forms when they get to the "tens", or having two different forms for each number, etc. The challenge with large numbers you are encountering is very normal. </p>

<p>English single digits 1-9 translate to "一 。。。 九"<br>
tens is “十， 二十..."</p>

<p>hundreds "百”</p>

<p>thousands “千”</p>

<p>ten thousand “萬”</p>

<p>You can easily see that the challenge stems from the fact that Chinese has one more unit than English - “萬” which is 10,000. In English, you express the number as 10*1,000 (ten thousand). 100,000 is 100*1000 (a hundred thousand) in English, but in Chinese, it is 10* 萬. When I teach Chinese I often encourage my students to shift the comma to the left, so 100,000 (one hundred thousand) becomes 10,0000 (十萬) and so on. Use the comma as a visual cue. When you get better at this, you can just shift the comma mentally. Keep practising and you'll get better and better. Happy learning!    </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T21:59:20.047Z
2018-07-24T21:59:20.047Z
monalisa
<p>Learning counting is hard in every language. And the rules can be hard for native speakers to write down as well. It appears we just happen to know what's the right thing to say, and will be able to tell that something wrong simply &quot;sounds wired&quot;. Below is an attempt to summarize the rules but definitely requires improvement.</p>
<h2>1-1000</h2>
<p>Smaller, common numbers are best summarised in a table. Hard to learn but will be used a lot. I only used combinations of 0,1,2,8 and I hope the pattern is shown clearly. It's ordered in the hope that expression of the same format are grouped together. There're probably some mistakes and forgotten exceptions in the following list. And many special cases and alternative expressions are ignored.</p>
<ul>
<li>1 一</li>
<li>8 八</li>
<li>10 十</li>
<li>11 十一</li>
<li>12 十二</li>
<li>18 十八</li>
<li>20 二十</li>
<li>80 八十</li>
<li>21 二十一</li>
<li>22 二十二</li>
<li>28 二十八</li>
<li>81 八十一</li>
<li>100 一百</li>
<li>200 二百</li>
<li>800 八百</li>
<li>101 一百零一</li>
<li>102 一百零二</li>
<li>108 一百零八</li>
<li>110 一百(一)十</li>
<li>111 一百(一)十一</li>
<li>112 一百(一)十二</li>
<li>118 一百(一)十八</li>
<li>120 一百二(十)</li>
<li>180 一百八(十)</li>
<li>280 二百八</li>
<li>128 一百二十八</li>
<li>821 八百二十一</li>
<li>1000 一千</li>
</ul>
<h2>1000-9999</h2>
<p>Still quite commonly used in everyday life and relatively straight-forward.</p>
<p>First divide it into <strong>a</strong>/<strong>xxx</strong>, and say it like</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>a</strong> 千+ add 零 in the middle if <strong>xxx</strong> is smaller than 100 + how you would say <strong>xxx</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>For exmaple</p>
<ul>
<li>2001 = 二千 / 零 / 一    (xxx=001&lt;100)
<ul>
<li>Only 1 零 is necessary, never use several consecutive 零s unless you are saying it as a year)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2020  二千 / 零 /二十  (xxx=020&lt;100)</li>
<li>2021  二千 / 零 /二十一(xxx=021&lt;100)</li>
<li>2100  二千 / / 一百         (xxx=100)</li>
<li>2821  二千 / / 八百二十一    (xxx=821&gt;100)</li>
</ul>
<p>And lastly</p>
<ul>
<li>10000 一万</li>
<li>80000 八万</li>
<li>20000 二万 (tricky, but this expression works)</li>
</ul>
<h2>10000 onwards if you are really interested</h2>
<p>Break numbers into groups of 4.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>872,<strong>0321</strong>,<strong>0021</strong>,8010</p>
</blockquote>
<p>First, say each group as you would according to previous sections.</p>
<p>Insert something in between:</p>
<p>兆 10^12 亿 10^8 万10^4</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(872)兆(0321)亿(0021)万(8010)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If the following group is smaller than 1000 (bold), add a 零 (one and only one) before it.</p>
<p>(<strong>NB</strong> Very unsure about this tricky bit, I think some 零 can be omitted)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(872)兆零(321)亿零(21)万(8010)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What about</p>
<blockquote>
<p>872,0000,0000,8010?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Omit unnecessary part and follow the principle of no consecutive 零s</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(872)兆零(8010)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And for 872,<strong>0321</strong>,5421,0000</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(872)兆零(321)亿(5421)万</p>
<p>Full stop.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Notes and Thoughts</h2>
<p>I belive that's way more than enough. I wrote the answer based on a computer programme I've written for this conversion, but we are humans. No idea why I went into such depths.</p>
<p>In daily life, we just pronounce each digit in order when we are lazy, forget about all the grammars. Or write it down in groups of four, or press it on a calculator, because there's no meaning in saying a large number aloud.</p>
<p>In written language, these official expressions are necessary for legal files or bank cheques for example.</p>
<p>For what exactly is going on in my mind when I read 321,0021,8010. I won't try to convert it at all. It'll remain as a number instead of a word in my mind. The only thought is &quot;Woo, that's a large number&quot;. I won't think of English expression at all.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-26T16:56:29.310Z
great help. thanks a lot. i think i can do numbers up the the 萬 quite easily now especially after this answer. but anything in the millions and i will struggle. will continue to learn.
Henry Kingston
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-25T12:55:04.417Z
2018-07-25T12:55:04.417Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Anna Zhian Zhou
<p>based on my experience only.</p>

<p>chinese text mixed with arabic digits, i read them in cantonese.</p>

<p>english text mixed with arabic digits, i read them in english. depends on the context, i would decipher the meanings, either digit by digit, in time / date format, or quantity.</p>

<p>well, arabic digits amongst le texte français, i read it, en français; my slowest reading.</p>

<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-25T04:52:43.357Z
2018-07-25T07:18:54.000Z
2018-07-25T07:18:54.000Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Often you see Arabic numbers among Chinese texts for example: 我想要321餃子
would that be read as "three hundred" or as "三百二十一"?</p>

<p>This may seem obvious but thought I'd seek clarification.  Learning the numbers has been a challenge, due to the different decimal places, so for large numbers in particular I was wondering how it works when written like e.g. 1,542,800.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T20:27:38.450Z
regarding commas,中文环境下阿拉伯数字的逗号应该每三位写一个还是每四位？ https://www.zhihu.com/question/19867703
user6065
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T23:22:26.477Z
I'm quite curious how you would imagine someone who's never heard a word of English in their life to suddenly say "three hundred twenty one" if they saw the digits 321.
Apollys supports Monica
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-24T23:35:14.030Z
321餃子 looks like a brand name , in which case we read it as 三二一饺子. Otherwise, it should be written as 321个饺子， which should be read as the way answers indicated
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-25T00:04:57.150Z
Why would they read it in English? It's not like English speakers invented that notation. The English language and Arabic numerals have no special relationship.
user2357112
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-26T15:18:45.383Z
as i said, probably an obvious question. i've been learning Chinese numbers, just wondered why i rarely actually see chinese numbers in written texts on media, its usually Arabic numbers. maybe this is every language same? thanks for clarifying. where i have small experience with romance languages, none at all with a non phonetic lexicon like Chinese. so the relationship between spoken  and the written text is a very new concept to me, never explored before. i cant draw parallels.
Henry Kingston
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-28T01:57:45.937Z
Depends on context. Years are always read/said just by digits eg 2015 二零十五(年), quantities with 千，白，万 etc.
Vitaly Osipov
<number>
When Chinese speakers read Arabic numbers, do they still read them in Chinese?
# When Chinese speakers read Arabic numbers, do they still read them in Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-07-24)

Often you see Arabic numbers among Chinese texts for example: 我想要321餃子
would that be read as "three hundred" or as "三百二十一"?

This may seem obvious but thought I'd seek clarification. Learning the numbers has been a challenge, due to the different decimal places, so for large numbers in particular I was wondering how it works when written like e.g. 1,542,800.

**Tags:** number

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: regarding commas,中文环境下阿拉伯数字的逗号应该每三位写一个还是每四位？ https://www.zhihu.com/question/19867703  
> **username_2**: I'm quite curious how you would imagine someone who's never heard a word of English in their life to suddenly say "three hundred twenty one" if they saw the digits 321.  
> **username_3**: 321餃子 looks like a brand name , in which case we read it as 三二一饺子. Otherwise, it should be written as 321个饺子， which should be read as the way answers indicated  
> **username_4**: Why would they read it in English? It's not like English speakers invented that notation. The English language and Arabic numerals have no special relationship.  
> **username_0**: as i said, probably an obvious question. i've been learning Chinese numbers, just wondered why i rarely actually see chinese numbers in written texts on media, its usually Arabic numbers. maybe this is every language same? thanks for clarifying. where i have small experience with romance languages, none at all with a non phonetic lexicon like Chinese. so the relationship between spoken  and the written text is a very new concept to me, never explored before. i cant draw parallels.  
> **username_5**: Depends on context. Years are always read/said just by digits eg 2015 二零十五(年), quantities with 千，白，万 etc.  

---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2018-07-24. Score: 4

I'm a native speaker. I'll read "我(wo) 想(xiang) 要(yao) 三(san) 百(bai) 二(er) 十(shi) 一(yi) 個(ge) 餃(jiao) 子(zi)".

BTW "321餃子" doesn't make sense. "321個餃子" would be correct because you need the unit "個".

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: woops.  thanks for your answer. i am struggling with numbers as you can see. so for larger numbers,  such as 1,542,800?  
> **username_6**: 一百五十四萬兩千八百 yi bai wu shi si wan liang qian ba bai.  
> **username_6**: If you want to get familiar to read large number, I have a mnemonic phrase for you: 個(ge), 十(shi), 百(bai), 千(qian), 萬(wan), 十萬, 百萬, 千萬, 億(yi), 十億, 百億, 千億, 兆(zhao)  
> **username_7**: the mandarin pinyin is xiang for 想.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2018-07-24. Score: 3

When reading the number '1,542,811' the first thing I do is count the number of digits from the smallest to the largest.

In this case, I would first count: "個、十、百、千、萬、十萬、百萬" to confirm it is a seven digits number (million). Then I would read it out in reverse order, from highest to lowest

First read how many '萬' (10000) ; and there are '154 萬' (**一百伍十四萬**)

Then read how many '千' (1000) after that; and there are '2 千' (**二千**)

Then read how many '百' (100)after that; and there are '8 百' (**八百**)

Then read how many '十' (10) after that; and there is '1 十' (**一十**)

Finally read the last single digit, and it is '1' (**一**)

[一百伍十四萬][二千][八百][一十][一] would be the correct reading of '1,542,811'

If it is not an amount but a serial of number (like phone number or document reference number), we can just read each number as it is, so '1542811' would be read as '**一五四二八一一**'


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2018-07-25. Score: 1

Practical and clarity is the key, it is similar to many language way of handling plural.

* 321只餃子 only one way to say it : 三百二十一只餃子 , otherwise the listener will confuse whether you want 3 or 2 or 1 餃子
* Phone number , e.g. 712-333-859 you are free to speak out individual number, or mix it. For example, when 333 is to the audience whether it is two 3 or three 3 , you should say, 三百三十三，or 三个三 。 三三三 is not recommended as the audience will definitely want to confirm with 三个三?
* Number 1,542,800 . You may say 一百五十四万二千八百, or individual number : 一五四二八零零; 一五四二八百
* Number 542,800. This is more interesting. 五十四万二千八百, or use the English convention 五百四十二千八百, or speak out individual number.
* anything more than millions is getting more confusing. 10 millions is always 千万。 100 millions will be 一万万，or 一亿。 But you don't need to touch those number unless you start get use to Chinese numbering convention.


---

### Answer by username_10 on 2018-07-24. Score: 0

Arabic numerals are more like symbols than actual words, and people tend to read them in their native language. So, yes, when Chinese speakers read Arabic numbers, they read in Chinese.

Learning the numbers is hard, no matter what language you are dealing with. Chinese actually has a rather straightforward system, without numbers changing forms when they get to the "tens", or having two different forms for each number, etc. The challenge with large numbers you are encountering is very normal.

English single digits 1-9 translate to "一 。。。 九"  
tens is “十， 二十..."

hundreds "百”

thousands “千”

ten thousand “萬”

You can easily see that the challenge stems from the fact that Chinese has one more unit than English - “萬” which is 10,000. In English, you express the number as 10\*1,000 (ten thousand). 100,000 is 100\*1000 (a hundred thousand) in English, but in Chinese, it is 10\* 萬. When I teach Chinese I often encourage my students to shift the comma to the left, so 100,000 (one hundred thousand) becomes 10,0000 (十萬) and so on. Use the comma as a visual cue. When you get better at this, you can just shift the comma mentally. Keep practising and you'll get better and better. Happy learning!


---

### Answer by username_11 on 2018-07-25. Score: 0

Learning counting is hard in every language. And the rules can be hard for native speakers to write down as well. It appears we just happen to know what's the right thing to say, and will be able to tell that something wrong simply "sounds wired". Below is an attempt to summarize the rules but definitely requires improvement.

## 1-1000

Smaller, common numbers are best summarised in a table. Hard to learn but will be used a lot. I only used combinations of 0,1,2,8 and I hope the pattern is shown clearly. It's ordered in the hope that expression of the same format are grouped together. There're probably some mistakes and forgotten exceptions in the following list. And many special cases and alternative expressions are ignored.

* 1 一
* 8 八
* 10 十
* 11 十一
* 12 十二
* 18 十八
* 20 二十
* 80 八十
* 21 二十一
* 22 二十二
* 28 二十八
* 81 八十一
* 100 一百
* 200 二百
* 800 八百
* 101 一百零一
* 102 一百零二
* 108 一百零八
* 110 一百(一)十
* 111 一百(一)十一
* 112 一百(一)十二
* 118 一百(一)十八
* 120 一百二(十)
* 180 一百八(十)
* 280 二百八
* 128 一百二十八
* 821 八百二十一
* 1000 一千

## 1000-9999

Still quite commonly used in everyday life and relatively straight-forward.

First divide it into **a**/**xxx**, and say it like

> **a** 千+ add 零 in the middle if **xxx** is smaller than 100 + how you would say **xxx**

For exmaple

* 2001 = 二千 / 零 / 一 (xxx=001<100)
  + Only 1 零 is necessary, never use several consecutive 零s unless you are saying it as a year)
* 2020 二千 / 零 /二十 (xxx=020<100)
* 2021 二千 / 零 /二十一(xxx=021<100)
* 2100 二千 / / 一百 (xxx=100)
* 2821 二千 / / 八百二十一 (xxx=821>100)

And lastly

* 10000 一万
* 80000 八万
* 20000 二万 (tricky, but this expression works)

## 10000 onwards if you are really interested

Break numbers into groups of 4.

> 872,**0321**,**0021**,8010

First, say each group as you would according to previous sections.

Insert something in between:

兆 10^12 亿 10^8 万10^4

> (872)兆(0321)亿(0021)万(8010)

If the following group is smaller than 1000 (bold), add a 零 (one and only one) before it.

(**NB** Very unsure about this tricky bit, I think some 零 can be omitted)

> (872)兆零(321)亿零(21)万(8010)

What about

> 872,0000,0000,8010?

Omit unnecessary part and follow the principle of no consecutive 零s

> (872)兆零(8010)

And for 872,**0321**,5421,0000

> (872)兆零(321)亿(5421)万
>
> Full stop.

## Notes and Thoughts

I belive that's way more than enough. I wrote the answer based on a computer programme I've written for this conversion, but we are humans. No idea why I went into such depths.

In daily life, we just pronounce each digit in order when we are lazy, forget about all the grammars. Or write it down in groups of four, or press it on a calculator, because there's no meaning in saying a large number aloud.

In written language, these official expressions are necessary for legal files or bank cheques for example.

For what exactly is going on in my mind when I read 321,0021,8010. I won't try to convert it at all. It'll remain as a number instead of a word in my mind. The only thought is "Woo, that's a large number". I won't think of English expression at all.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: great help. thanks a lot. i think i can do numbers up the the 萬 quite easily now especially after this answer. but anything in the millions and i will struggle. will continue to learn.  

---

### Answer by username_12 on 2018-07-25. Score: 0

based on my experience only.

chinese text mixed with arabic digits, i read them in cantonese.

english text mixed with arabic digits, i read them in english. depends on the context, i would decipher the meanings, either digit by digit, in time / date format, or quantity.

well, arabic digits amongst le texte français, i read it, en français; my slowest reading.

have fun :)


---

