Chinese Numbers 1 to 100 for Kids

Chinese numbers are one of the nicest surprises for young learners. Once a child knows the words for 1 to 10, they can count all the way to 99 with no new words at all. There are no special words like "eleven" or "twenty" to memorise.

This guide shows the pattern, then covers the parts that do need a little care: how numbers are written in pinyin, why 一 changes its tone, and a few classroom-tested ways to practise.

Numbers are an early-years target

In the Victorian Curriculum in Australia, students learning Chinese as a second language are described at Level 2 as matching characters to the meanings and sounds of familiar words, with numbers listed first among the examples (VCAA PDF). Counting is also something children can practise anywhere: stairs, cars, snacks.

Step 1: one to ten

The pinyin below shows each number said on its own. Pinyin and meanings are ours.

Number	Character	Pinyin
0	零	líng
1	一	yī
2	二	èr
3	三	sān
4	四	sì
5	五	wǔ
6	六	liù
7	七	qī
8	八	bā
9	九	jiǔ
10	十	shí

Tone check: 一, 三, 七 and 八 are first tone; 零 and 十 second; 五 and 九 third; 二, 四 and 六 fourth. A quick game is to call out a tone number and have your child shout every digit with that tone.

Step 2: eleven to ninety-nine

The whole system follows two patterns:

• Eleven to nineteen: ten + digit. 十一 (11) is "ten one", 十五 (15) is "ten five".
• Twenty to ninety-nine: digit + ten (+ digit). 二十 (20) is "two ten", 三十三 (33) is "three ten three", 九十九 (99) is "nine ten nine".

Number	Characters	Pinyin
11	十一	shíyī
15	十五	shíwǔ
20	二十	èrshí
33	三十三	sānshísān
47	四十七	sìshíqī
68	六十八	liùshíbā
99	九十九	jiǔshíjiǔ
100	一百	yībǎi

Notice that the pinyin is written as one word. The national pinyin orthography standard, GB/T 16159, says numbers from 11 to 99 are written joined, giving shíyī, shíwǔ, sānshísān and jiǔshíjiǔ as examples. It also says 百, 千, 万 and 亿 are joined to a single digit in front of them (GB/T 16159), so 100 is yībǎi.

Step 3: the tone change of 一

Here's the part that confuses parents who learned from a textbook. 一 has three different spoken tones, depending on what comes after it. Following a standard Putonghua phonetics summary (source):

• On its own or at the end of a word or sentence, 一 keeps its first tone: 一 yī, 十一 shíyī, 第一 dì-yī.
• Before a fourth tone, it becomes second tone: 一半 yíbàn (half), 一样 yíyàng (the same).
• Before a first, second or third tone, it becomes fourth tone: 一天 yì tiān, 一年 yì nián, 一百 yìbǎi.

So a child says yī when reading the digit 1 on its own, but yìbǎi for 100 in normal speech.

How should it be written?

GB/T 16159 says 一 and 不 are normally written with their original tone, not the changed one, for example yī tiān. It also allows the changed tone to be marked where needed, such as in language teaching (GB/T 16159). Both choices are correct. For young children, marking the spoken tone can make reading aloud easier. For older learners heading toward dictionaries and textbooks, the original tone avoids confusion. Our tone change rules guide goes into this in more detail.

Step 4: counting things

Counting objects in Chinese needs a measure word between the number and the noun. The most common is 个 (gè):

• 三个苹果 sān gè píngguǒ: three apples
• 两个人 liǎng gè rén: two people

GB/T 16159 says a number and its measure word are written separately in pinyin, with examples such as liǎng gè rén (GB/T 16159).

Note 两 (liǎng) in that example: before a measure word, "two" is normally 两 rather than 二, while 二 stays in 十二 and 二十.

Bonus: ordinal numbers and "about"

These come up quickly once children start reading:

• First, second… Add 第 (dì): 第一 dì-yī (first), 第十三 dì-shísān (thirteenth). GB/T 16159 writes 第 with a hyphen before the number (GB/T 16159).
• Days of the lunar month. 初一 chūyī and 初十 chūshí are written joined (GB/T 16159). This is handy around Lunar New Year.
• "Three or five", "seven or eight". Approximate numbers get a hyphen: 三五天 sān-wǔ tiān, 七八个 qī-bā gè (GB/T 16159).

Quick self-check

Once the two patterns from Step 2 click, children can build any number to 99 themselves. Cover the right-hand column and try these:

Number	Characters	Pinyin
39	三十九	sānshíjiǔ
56	五十六	wǔshíliù
71	七十一	qīshíyī
84	八十四	bāshísì

If your child writes 六十五 for 56, they've swapped the pattern: the tens digit comes first.

Practice ideas

Ages 4–6

• Count stairs, toys and fingers in Chinese every day for a week.
• Play "What's missing?": say 1 to 10 and skip one, then have your child spot the gap.
• Trace the characters 一 to 十 on a tracing sheet.

Ages 6–8

• Count by tens: 十, 二十, 三十 … 一百.
• Dictation: read out five numbers between 11 and 99 and have your child write the characters.
• Shopping game: put prices on toys (五十块, 九十九块) and "buy" them.

Ages 8+

• Read the date in Chinese each morning.
• Spot 一 in sentences and decide which tone it takes.

Make number worksheets

Paste a list such as 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 into the pinyin worksheet generator. Tracing mode suits first writing practice, full mode adds pinyin for reading, and blank mode shows only the pinyin above empty squares, so your child writes each character from memory. Turn on the spoken-tones option if you want 一百 to show yì rather than yī.

Sources

• GB/T 16159-2012 Basic rules of the Chinese phonetic alphabet orthography (transcription)
• Gansu Communications Vocational and Technical College: 普通话语音基础知识（9）——变调
• Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority: Chinese Second Language F-10, Sequence Levels F-6 (PDF)