Cardinal Numbers

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General Rules

In Cantonese, numbers can be interpreted as a series of digits. From decimal to ten-thoursand-fold, each digit has a corresponding character. To read out the number, read the number of the value of the digit followed by the value of the digit. For example, the number four hundred and seventy-nine (479) has three digits: four hundreds (四百, read as sei-bāak), seven tens (七十, read as chāt-sahp) and nine (九, read as gáu). The number is written as 四百七十九 and is read as sei-bāak-chāt-sahp-gáu. The word "and" in "four hundred and seventy-nine" is ommitted.

Any digit in zero followed by a digit which is not zero is replaced by the character 零 (read as lìhng). For example, the number one thousand and one (1001) is read as yāt-cin-lìhng-yāt.

The number eleven (11) is literally one-ten and one but the character "one" in "one ten" is usually omitted. The same case applies to twelve to nineteen.

The number two sometimes becomes 兩 (read as loeng) rather than 二 (read as yih). Examples include:

兩性 loeng-sing the two sexes
兩文三語 loeng-man-sāam-jyu two written languages and three spoken languages
一國兩制 yāt-gwok-loeng-zai one country two systems

Generally, two is 兩 when:

it is used for counting (e.g. two apples, two people, two houses)
it precedes units more than or equal to a thousand

two is 二 in:

certain set expressions (such as idioms)
numbers less than or equal to a thousand

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One through Ten

audio|Zero_to_ten_in_Cantonese_Chinese.ogg|Listen to audio

〇 (零) lìhng zero 0
一 (壹) yāt one 1
二 (貳) yih two 2
三 (叁) sāam three 3
四 (肆) sei four 4
五 (伍) ng five 5
六 (陸) luhk six 6
七 (柒) chāt seven 7
八 (捌) baat eight 8
九 (玖) gáu nine 9
十 (拾) sahp ten 10

Parenthesized entries are the complex forms, which are used mainly in notarized, official documents. An exception is zero wherein the complex form is more widely used.

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Tens Hundreds, Thousands, Etc.

十一 sahp-yāt eleven 11
十二 sahp-yih twelve 12
十三 sahp-sāam thirteen 13

等等 etc

二十一 yih-sahp-yāt twenty-one 21
二十二 yih-sahp-yih twenty-two 22
二十三 yih-sahp-sāam twenty-three 23

等等 etc

一百 yāt-bāak one hundred 100
一百零八 yāt-bāak-lìhng-baat one hundred and eight 108
一百六十六 yāt-bāak-luhk-sahp-luhk one hundred and sixty-six 166
二百三十 yih-bāak-sāam-sahp two hundred and thirty

等等 etc

一千 yāt-cin one thousand 1,000
七千二百一十三 chāt-cin-yih-bāak-yāt-sahp-sāam seven thousand two hundred and thirteen 7,213

等等 etc

一萬 yāt-maan one myriad or ten thousand 10,000
四萬三千 sei-maan-sāam-cin forty-three thousand 43,000

等等 etc

十萬 sahp-maan one hundred thousand 100,000
九十六萬八千二百七十四 gáu-sahp-luhk-maan-baat-cin-yih-bāak-chāt-sahp-sei nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hundred and seventy-four 968,274

等等 etc