How to Count to Ten in Mandarin Chinese
75Learn How to Say The Numbers in Mandarin Chinese
Counting the Numbers in Chinese - It's Easier Than You Think - Trust Me!
Greetings Chinese students! Let's learn Chinese online! Today you're going to learn how to count to ten in Mandarin Chinese. Surprisingly, the numbers and counting systme in general in Mandarin Chinese is quite straight forward, easy to pronounce and easy to understand and memorize. This truly is one of the easiest parts of Chinese vocabulary. The only drawback and possibly the biggest challenge for students of Mandarin Chinese is mastering the tones. If you don't get the tones right the Chinese people will probably have somewhat of an idea of what you're saying but it's really best to master the tones from the very beginning.
1. To pronounce one we say yī. You must say it with the first flat tone.
2. To say two you must say "èr" with the fourth falling tone. It's almost like the sound you make when somebody hits you in the stomach.
3. To say three you say sān. This one is with the first flat tone. Three is the easiest to pronounce because all of the sounds are similar to English sounds.
4. The number four is slightly harder. You say "sì" with the fourth dropping tone. Be absolutely you use that fourth falling tone because if you say it with the third dipping tone it will be saying to die!
5. The number five is easy. It's almost the same as the Chinese lastname Wu, just you need to use the third dipping tone.
6. For the number six you say lìu and it sounds just like the English name, Leo. Just make sure you use the fourth falling tone.
7. The number seven is written in pinyin qī and uses the first flat tone. But it really sounds like "chi".
8. To say eight you say bā with the first flat tone. Remember the childhood song, "Ba, Ba Black Sheep, Haven't You Any Wool?" Well, the word for eight in Chinese, "bā" sounds just like that.
9. The word for nine is jiǔ. It's slighly harder because English does not have an exact equivilant for the Mandarin pinyin J sound. Just try your hardest and listen to me in the video below.
10. For ten say shí like your telling somebody to be quiet! Just make sure you use the second rising tone.
Great! Now you know how to count to ten in Mandarin. But, if you really want to learn to speak naturally and fluently click here.
Video - How to Count to Ten In Mandarin Chinese
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Comments
Hi Salt - Wow! You must be a very strong student! dawei888
I will have to check this out. Have been trying to learn some Mandarin vocabulary as my son lives in HK and his mother-in-law (the other grandmother) speaks Mandarin. In traveling and visiting with her, it would be very pleasing to both of us if I could at least master a few words. She knows no English and never went to school, so I'm thinking it may be a start to trading a few words between us.
Dawei, one of my first stumbling blocks in learning to pronounce Chinese (even before tone) was realizing that initial glides (y or w) in the romanization of Chinese are not really pronounced. They're just some kind of notational convention. So 'yi' sounds like [i] and wu sounds like [u], not [yi] or [wu].
In school, we were taught to count:
i, er, san, sher, oo, liow, tsee, pa, tsiow, sher (Mandarin)
tsit, nung, sa, si, go, lak, tsit, pweh, kao, tsap (Amoy)
:)
Dear All - WOW - very interesting comments! I have not been paying attention to my mandarin teaching in a while!
Jerilee - I think it's just wonderful that you're going to learn some mandarin to talk with your mother-in-law. i'm sure she'll be delighted!
Aya - Yes, mainland Chinese pinyin can be a bit tricky at first. For example, the "x" sound is kind of between an engish "s" and "sh". xie xie = thank you.
susan - hmm...i'd like to learn more about the amoy dialect. is that also from fujian province.
thank you everybody - xie xie da jia! dawei = david
David, I have no idea where Amoy is from. Hehe. :P That's the dialect majority of the Chinese people here in the Philippines speak, and when I was in school our Chinese subjects were taught in Amoy. Now schools here already teach Chinese in Mandarin. I'm not sure when they made the change though. :)
But it's funny. I studied in Chinese schools from Kindergarten to High School and yet I don't know how to speak Chinese. All we did was read, write, and memorize the lessons. :O
Hi Susan, Li Ho! Gwa Jing Ho La! (Ni Hao, Wo Hen Hao A!) - I just looked on wikipedia. Amoy is also known as Min-Nan hua, which is also the local chinese dialect spoken by the majority of Taiwanese. Actually, I also know a lot of Amoy. I can hold a very simple conversation and say nice things (NOT swears!!!) but am far from fluent. Do Shia Li (xiexie ni!) dawei888
I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hehe. :D You know, I actually find it easier to read the Chinese characters with the po p[h]o mo fo symbols than their English spellings. Some of the words sound really different spelled with the English alphabet. :) Sadly, even though I can read Chinese characters fairly well, I can't understand what I'm reading. :P And you're probably a lot better than I am at holding a conversation in Chinese. Hehe. :P
HI Susan - Hmm...That's very interesting. The only thing I can do with BoPoMoFo is send text messages on a Nokia cell phone! One time I had a deaf friend and we communicated that way! My chinese reading is quite good for anything that is financial related because i worked in that field before and had to read the newspapers every morning (yuck!). But, if you ask me to read something to do with poetry or art I would need to look up a lot of characters in the dictionary. BTW - my favorite site for that is zhongwen.com. it's brilliant!!! PS - I have a friend in Cebu!!! Is it a nice place to visit?
I'm actually more interested in learning the Japanese language. Hehe. :)
Cebu, like any place, has some nice places and some not so nice ones. Cebu City itself, where I live, is just an ordinary city. But the Province of Cebu has some nice beaches. :)
Hmm...now u have my curiosity! I'd like to check out the beaches. I've been to Boracai and it was very nice!
I tried learning Japanese several times and gave up. I can only remember the words for 5 minutes then forget. In college I dropped out of Japanese class after 2 weeks! For me chinese seems easier - one character, one meaning. I don't mind the tones which is good. Some people really struggle in that area.
Palawan and Bohol have great beaches, too. We went snorkeling off the shores of Dos Palmas, Palawan last year, and the marine flora and fauna were breathtaking. Even saw a giant clam nestled in the colorful corals. :) But in the Province of Cebu itself, I'd have to say I like the beaches in Moalboal. :)
Okay - Next time I take a vacation I'll come to the Philippines! You have convinced me! I want to see the giant clam underwater! :-)
The giant clam is patiently awaiting your arrival. Haha! :D
salt says:
7 months ago
thankyou! I can add this to my counting to ten in french and german - I learnt both for 2 years and I think that and a few other words of japanese are my current total of foreign languages.