Cantonese/Numbers
< CantoneseCardinal Numbers
General Rules
In Cantonese, numbers can be interpreted as a series of digits. From tens to ten-thousands, 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 omitted.
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
One through Ten
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.
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.
- 一百萬 yāt-bāak-maan one million 1,000,000
- 六百七十八萬二千 luhk-bāak-chāt-sahp-baat-maan-yih-cin six-million seven-hundred and eighty-two thousand 6,782,000
等等 etc.
Ordinal Numbers
To show the position of something in a list of items, simply add the word 第 (read as dai) before the number.
- 第一 dai-yāt the first
- 第十一 dai-sahp-yāt the eleventh
- 第四百八十九 dai-sei-bāak-baat-sahp-gáu the 489th