Chinese Numbers 0-10: Characters, Pinyin and Pronunciation

Why the complete set matters: 0 through 10

Numbers 1 through 10 in Chinese are where most learners start, and rightly so — they're the building blocks for the entire counting system. But zero has its own distinct character, its own contexts, and a couple of quirks that don't apply to the others. A child who can confidently rattle off 一二三四五六七八九十 but freezes when someone says 零下五度 (five degrees below zero) or 二〇〇五年 (the year 2005) has a gap worth closing.

This guide treats 0-10 as a complete set. The sections below cover 零 first — it's the character that needs the most explanation — and then move through 一 to 十 with fresh angles on each one. If you're looking for a deep dive into the numbers 1-10 specifically, see our Mandarin Numbers 1-10 guide for extended cultural notes and pronunciation details on each of those ten characters.

零 (líng) — Zero

Zero in Chinese is 零, pronounced líng with a second (rising) tone. It has 13 strokes — more than any other number in this set — and visually it's one of the more complex characters a beginner encounters early. The top of the character contains the rain radical (雨), which gives 零 a slightly poetic feel in classical Chinese, where it referred to scattered raindrops or small remainders. In modern Mandarin it's the standard word for zero, nothing else.

Pinyin: líng (second tone — rising, from mid to high)

Pronunciation guide: Say "ling" as in "linger" but cut it short — there's no "er" at the end. Then apply the second tone: let your pitch rise smoothly from a mid starting point up to a high endpoint, like the intonation on "really?" when you're genuinely surprised or asking for confirmation. It should feel like a question, even though it isn't one.

Stroke order: 零 is a compound character with the rain radical (雨) on top and 令 below. Write the top horizontal stroke, then the vertical stroke down through it, then the two diagonal dot-strokes on each side, then the four small dots across the bottom of the rain radical. After the rain component, write 令: a horizontal roof-stroke, then the structure below it, finishing with the final downward stroke. Following standard top-to-bottom, left-to-right order handles most of this correctly. Thirteen strokes total.

How 零 is used in real Mandarin

Phone numbers. In Mandarin, phone numbers are read digit by digit, and zero appears frequently — especially at the start of area codes and mobile numbers. A mobile number beginning with 010 would be read 零一零 (líng yī líng). There's no grouping shortcut as in English; every digit including every zero comes out individually. If you're helping a child learn to read phone numbers in Chinese, zero is often the first problem character.

Temperatures. The phrase for below zero is 零下 (líng xià) — literally "zero below." Weather forecasts in Mandarin use this constantly in winter: 零下三度 (líng xià sān dù) is three degrees below zero. You might also hear 零度 (líng dù) for exactly zero degrees. Children who grow up in Chinese-speaking households often hear this during winter news broadcasts before they know what 零 means as an abstract number.

Years and dates. When reading years digit by digit in Mandarin, zeros become 〇 (a small circle used as a digit placeholder) in print, but are still spoken as líng. The year 2005 is written 二〇〇五年 and spoken 二零零五年 (èr líng líng wǔ nián). This is one of the more confusing aspects of 零 for beginners: seeing 〇 in a year but knowing to say líng for it. The formal character 零 and the circle 〇 are two representations of the same spoken word — same pronunciation, different graphic forms depending on context.

Numbers with internal zeros. In Chinese, 零 appears inside large numbers to represent internal zeros. One hundred and five is 一百零五 (yī bǎi líng wǔ) — the 零 bridges the hundred and the five. This is different from English, where you might say "one hundred and five" or "one-oh-five." Mandarin requires 零 explicitly whenever a zero falls between non-zero digits.

Floors and basements. In some Taiwanese and Chinese building conventions, 零樓 or B1 marks basement levels, though 地下 (dìxià — underground) is more common for basements. Knowing 零 helps interpret signage in older buildings.

一 (yī) — One

One is a single horizontal stroke drawn left to right. One stroke total — the simplest character in the writing system. In printed form it looks like a plain dash; in handwritten Chinese the brushstroke has a slight thickening toward the right end.

Pinyin: yī (first tone — high and flat, like holding a musical note)

Pronunciation guide: Say "ee" as in "bee" and keep the pitch completely flat at the top of your voice range. Don't let it rise or fall at all. Most English speakers naturally add a slight dip at the end of sustained vowels — resist that here.

Stroke order: One stroke, horizontal, left to right.

One practical note: 一 has a tone-change rule called tonal sandhi. Before a fourth-tone syllable, it shifts to second tone. Before first, second, or third tones, it becomes fourth tone. Before a neutral-tone syllable, it stays first tone. You'll absorb this through listening, but it's why 一個 (yī gè — "one of something") sounds like yí gè in natural speech.

二 (èr) — Two

Two horizontal strokes, one above the other. The bottom stroke is longer and heavier than the top. Both go left to right. Two strokes total.

Pinyin: èr (fourth tone — sharp falling pitch)

Pronunciation guide: Say "ar" as in "car" and drop your pitch sharply from high to low, like the word "no" said with conviction. The fourth tone is the most emphatic-sounding to English ears.

Stroke order: Top horizontal first, then the longer bottom horizontal.

A usage note worth knowing early: 二 is used for the number two in isolation and in fixed positions (second floor = 二樓, February = 二月), but when modifying a noun, Mandarin usually uses 兩 (liǎng) instead. Two people is 兩個人 (liǎng gè rén), not 二個人. This trips up most beginners at least once.

三 (sān) — Three

Three horizontal strokes, evenly spaced, with the middle one slightly shorter than top and bottom. The bottom stroke is the longest and heaviest. Three strokes, all left to right.

Pinyin: sān (first tone — high and flat)

Pronunciation guide: "San" with a fairly open "a" vowel — more open than English "sun," closer to the "a" in "father." Keep the pitch high and steady throughout.

Stroke order: Top, then middle, then bottom.

The visual logic of 一, 二, 三 — one stroke for one, two for two, three for three — makes these the first three characters most children actually remember writing rather than just recognising. That quick early win is one reason teachers introduce numbers before most other vocabulary.

四 (sì) — Four

Four is the first number where the character becomes genuinely complex. It has five strokes and encloses content within a frame. The outer structure goes first, then the interior, then the bottom closes.

Pinyin: sì (fourth tone — sharp falling)

Pronunciation guide: The "i" after "s" in this pinyin syllable is a buzzing, centralised vowel — not the clear "ee" of 一. It sits somewhere between "sir" and "sz." Then drop your pitch sharply.

Stroke order: Left vertical, then top horizontal running into right vertical, then two interior strokes left to right, then the bottom closing horizontal. Five strokes total.

Four is culturally significant in a negative direction: 四 (sì) sounds like 死 (sǐ, death). This association — tetraphobia — means buildings, hospitals, phone numbers, and gifts in Chinese-speaking communities often avoid 4. Floor four is skipped in many Taiwanese apartment buildings. Knowing this early saves a child from accidentally giving a gift of four items to a Chinese-speaking grandparent.

五 (wǔ) — Five

Five has four strokes and a distinctive shape: a top horizontal, a left vertical stroke going down, a shorter middle horizontal, and then a long bottom horizontal with upward hooks at both ends. Nothing else in the first ten numbers looks quite like it.

Pinyin: wǔ (third tone — the dipping pitch that falls then rises)

Pronunciation guide: Round your lips for "woo" as in "wool," then apply the third tone: let your pitch drop low and come back up, like "well?" said with mild surprise. The third tone is the one English speakers find hardest because it genuinely moves in two directions.

Stroke order: Top horizontal, left vertical going down, middle horizontal, then the long bottom horizontal with its upward hooks at each end.

五 appears in many compound expressions: 五月 (wǔ yuè) is May, 五元 (wǔ yuán) is five dollars, and 五行 (wǔ xíng) is the classical five-element system of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The five-yuan coin is often the first piece of Chinese currency children learn to recognise.

六 (liù) — Six

Six has four strokes. The shape is a top dot-stroke, a central vertical going down, and two outward-sweeping strokes at the bottom that spread left and right. The overall silhouette has a stable, grounded quality.

Pinyin: liù (fourth tone — sharp falling)

Pronunciation guide: Start with "lee" as in the beginning of "Leo," then add "oo" as in "loo." The whole syllable sounds like "lyo" with a sharp downward pitch.

Stroke order: Top dot, central vertical stroke downward, left outward-sweeping stroke, right outward-sweeping stroke.

Six is lucky in Chinese culture — the idiom 六六大順 (liù liù dà shùn) means everything goes smoothly, and you'll see it printed on gift bags, wedding banners, and business cards. The sixth floor of an apartment building is often considered desirable. In phone numbers, strings of sixes command a small premium for exactly this reason.

七 (qī) — Seven

Seven has two strokes: a horizontal across the top and a vertical stroke starting at the centre of the horizontal and curving to the right at the bottom. The curve at the base is what distinguishes 七 from a plain cross.

Pinyin: qī (first tone — high and flat)

Pronunciation guide: The "q" in Mandarin pinyin is an aspirated sound made near the front of the palate — somewhere between the English "ch" in "cheese" and "ts," with a breath of air. Then add "ee" as in "bee" held flat and high.

Stroke order: Horizontal stroke first, then the vertical-curving stroke from centre-top down to lower right. Two strokes total.

Seven has mixed cultural weight. The seventh month of the lunar calendar is Ghost Month (鬼月, guǐ yuè), when many people avoid moving house or starting new ventures. But the seventh day of the seventh lunar month is Qixi (七夕, qī xī), the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day, based on the story of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. So seven is simultaneously spooky and romantic depending on which week you're in.

八 (bā) — Eight

Eight has two strokes: a left-falling stroke and a right-falling stroke, both starting near the top centre and spreading outward and downward. The character looks like an open V or two legs walking apart.

Pinyin: bā (first tone — high and flat)

Pronunciation guide: "Ba" as in "bar" minus the English "r" — just the open "ah" vowel, held high and flat.

Stroke order: Left-falling stroke first (from top centre, angling to lower left), then right-falling stroke (from top centre, angling to lower right). Two strokes total.

Eight is the luckiest number in Chinese culture. 八 (bā) sounds like 發 (fā), meaning to prosper or get wealthy. The 2008 Beijing Olympics opened on 08/08/2008 at 8:08 PM — a deliberate choice. In Chinese real-estate markets, apartments on floor eight or in blocks numbered 8 consistently sell for more. A phone number with three or four eights in a row is genuinely valuable. For heritage families, the number eight is one of the first cultural facts children absorb — often before they can write the character.

九 (jiǔ) — Nine

Nine has two strokes. The first is a sweeping hook stroke that curves from upper left to lower right. The second is a curved horizontal stroke that passes through the first, bending downward at the right end. Two strokes, though the exact hook form varies slightly between calligraphic traditions.

Pinyin: jiǔ (third tone — dipping pitch, falls then rises)

Pronunciation guide: "J" in Mandarin pinyin sounds like the "j" in "jeer" — no aspiration. The "iu" combination sounds roughly like "yo" in "yoga." Then apply the third tone: pitch dips low and rises back up.

Stroke order: The curving hook stroke first (from upper left, sweeping down and to the lower right), then the horizontal-curving stroke through it. Two strokes total.

Nine sounds like 久 (jiǔ), meaning "long time" or "lasting," which gives it positive associations with longevity. The Forbidden City in Beijing was built with 9,999 rooms — an intentional number. Double Ninth Day (重陽節, Chóng Yáng Jié), the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, is a festival for honouring elders. 九月 (jiǔ yuè) is September.

十 (shí) — Ten

Ten looks like a plus sign: a horizontal stroke and a vertical stroke crossing at centre. Two strokes total, simple and symmetrical. The vertical extends below the horizontal intersection more than above it.

Pinyin: shí (second tone — rising pitch)

Pronunciation guide: "Sh" as in "she," then an "i" that buzzes slightly (similar to the sound in 四/sì, but rising in pitch rather than falling). Move your pitch from mid to high, like the rising intonation on "really?"

Stroke order: Horizontal stroke first (left to right), then vertical stroke from top through the horizontal and continuing down. Two strokes total.

Ten is the number of completeness in Chinese. The idiom 十全十美 (shí quán shí měi) means perfect in every way — "ten complete, ten beautiful." It turns up on gift tags and in formal toasts. 十月 (shí yuè) is October. And because Mandarin builds all numbers from eleven to ninety-nine using 十 combined with the single digits (eleven = 十一, twenty = 二十, thirty-five = 三十五), knowing 十 solid is the key that unlocks the rest of the counting system.

Quick reference: Chinese numbers 0-10

All eleven numbers in one place. Character, pinyin with tone mark, tone description, plain-English pronunciation guide, and stroke count.

Number	Character	Pinyin	Tone	Sounds like	Strokes
0	零	líng	2nd (rising)	"ling" rising	13
1	一	yī	1st (high flat)	"ee" held high	1
2	二	èr	4th (falling)	"ar" falling sharply	2
3	三	sān	1st (high flat)	"sahn" held high	3
4	四	sì	4th (falling)	"sr" (buzzing) falling	5
5	五	wǔ	3rd (dip-rise)	"woo" dipping then rising	4
6	六	liù	4th (falling)	"lyo" falling sharply	4
7	七	qī	1st (high flat)	"chee" held high	2
8	八	bā	1st (high flat)	"bah" held high	2
9	九	jiǔ	3rd (dip-rise)	"jyo" dipping then rising	2
10	十	shí	2nd (rising)	"shr" rising sharply	2

Stroke order: the general rules

Four principles cover most of the characters in this set. Left before right: when a character has strokes on both sides, the left side goes first. Top before bottom: upper strokes precede lower ones. Horizontal before vertical: when strokes cross, the horizontal is written first — this is how 十 works, with the horizontal before the vertical. Outer before inner: for characters with an enclosing frame, the frame goes before the content inside, and the closing bottom stroke comes last — this governs 四.

Zero (零) is the exception that requires a more careful sequence. It's a compound character and needs to be learned as two parts: the rain radical (雨) on top, then the 令 component below. Working through those two components in order gives the correct 13-stroke result. Everything else in this set — including the surprisingly complex-looking 五 — follows the four basic rules without special cases.

Stroke order matters practically. Children who write characters in the correct order tend to produce more even, proportional characters. It also builds the muscle memory that makes handwriting input on Chinese-language phones work correctly — phones recognise characters partly by stroke direction and sequence.

Tones: the four patterns across 0-10

Looking at the tone distribution across zero to ten is a useful exercise. First tone (high flat): 一 (yī), 三 (sān), 七 (qī), 八 (bā). Second tone (rising): 零 (líng), 十 (shí). Third tone (dip-rise): 五 (wǔ), 九 (jiǔ). Fourth tone (falling): 二 (èr), 四 (sì), 六 (liù).

There are no neutral-tone numbers in this range. Every number from zero to ten has a full, distinct tone — which is one reason drilling them orally is important. Getting the tone wrong doesn't produce a slightly foreign-sounding number; it produces a different word entirely. 四 (sì, four) with the wrong tone becomes 死 (sǐ, death) or 私 (sī, private) depending on which tone you substitute. Tone accuracy matters more for numbers than for many other categories of Mandarin vocabulary precisely because the numbers themselves sound so similar to high-frequency unrelated words.

Using zero in practice

A few situations where 零 comes up in ordinary Mandarin conversation that don't come up with other numbers:

Counting change. When a price is, say, 105 yuan, a shopkeeper might say 一百零五塊 (yī bǎi líng wǔ kuài) — one hundred and five. The 零 acts as a spoken bridge between the hundred and the five, filling the "tens" position that has nothing in it. Without 零, the number sounds incomplete. English doesn't require this — "one hundred five" works fine — but Mandarin does.

Reading years aloud. The year 2008 is 二〇〇八年 in print and 二零零八年 in speech (though 兩千零八年, "two thousand and eight," is also used in formal contexts). The two zeros in the middle are both 零 when spoken. Heritage children often first encounter 零 in the context of hearing grown-ups discuss years.

Zero degrees vs. below zero. 零度 (líng dù) is exactly zero degrees Celsius — the freezing point. 零下 (líng xià) means below zero, and is followed by a number and 度: 零下八度 is eight degrees below zero. Understanding 零 makes winter weather reports immediately comprehensible.

FAQ

What is zero in Chinese?

Zero in Chinese is 零 (líng), pronounced with a second, rising tone — your pitch goes from mid to high, like asking "really?" The character has 13 strokes and historically contains the rain radical (雨), which reflects its classical meaning of scattered remainder or small drop. Today it's the standard word for zero in all modern contexts: phone numbers, temperatures, years, and arithmetic.

What are the Chinese numbers 0 to 10?

The Chinese numbers 0 to 10 are: 零 (líng, 0), 一 (yī, 1), 二 (èr, 2), 三 (sān, 3), 四 (sì, 4), 五 (wǔ, 5), 六 (liù, 6), 七 (qī, 7), 八 (bā, 8), 九 (jiǔ, 9), 十 (shí, 10). These eleven characters are identical in Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Once learned, the 1-10 set (and by extension 0-10) unlocks all counting to ninety-nine through simple combinations.

What is the difference between 零 and 〇?

Both represent zero, but in different ways. 零 is the full character, used in general writing, arithmetic, temperatures (零下), and speech. 〇 is a circle placeholder used specifically in year readings and serial numbers — you see it in print but say líng for it. In the year 2005 written as 二〇〇五年, the two 〇 circles are both spoken as 零. They're different written forms of the same spoken word.

How do you say below zero in Chinese?

Below zero is 零下 (líng xià). It always comes before the temperature: 零下五度 is five degrees below zero. You'll hear this exact phrase in Taiwanese and mainland Chinese weather forecasts every winter. The order is fixed — 零 (zero) first, 下 (below) second, then the degree count.

How many strokes does 零 have?

Zero (零) has 13 strokes, making it the most complex character in the 0-10 set. For comparison, one (一) has just 1 stroke. The character is built from the rain radical (雨) on top and 令 below, and the stroke sequence follows standard top-to-bottom, left-to-right rules for compound characters.

Are the Chinese numbers 0-10 the same in Traditional and Simplified Chinese?

Yes. The characters 零, 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十 are identical in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. This is one area where learners switching between the two systems encounter no difference whatsoever. Complexity differences between Traditional and Simplified appear with more intricate characters — the basic number set is a safe starting point for any learner.

For extended cultural notes and deeper pronunciation guidance on each of the numbers 1 through 10, see our complete Mandarin Numbers 1-10 guide. And if you're ready to put these numbers to work telling time, see our Time in Chinese guide — covering clock hours, days of the week, months, and how to say "What time is it?" in Mandarin.