Translations of numbers between Chinese and English

Chinese and English number systems

One million? One billion? 一億?


numbers

Difference in Chinese and English number systems

A lot of people are confused about the Western number system and the Chinese number system. How many zeros are there in 一亿(一億)? Eight or nine zeros? Or is one billion equal to 一亿(一億)?

Below is a conversion table between English and Chinese number systems that will clear all your confusion.

Numbers

English

中文

Numbers

100

Hundred

一百

100

1,000

Thousand

一千

1000

10,000

Ten Thousand

一万

1,0000

100,000

One Hundred Thousand

十万

10,0000

1,000,000

One Million

一百万

100,0000

10,000,000

Ten Million

一千万

1000,0000

100,000,000

One Hundred Million

一亿

1,0000,0000

1,000,000,000

One Billion

十亿

10,0000,0000

10,000,000,000

Ten Billion

一百亿

100,0000,0000

100,000,000,000

One Hundred Billion

一千亿

1000,0000,0000

As you can see, the Western system separates a number into sets of three digits, while the Chinese system separates a number into sets offour digits.

The Indians have a totally different system. To find out more, please see Western and Indian number systems.

© FONBO - Language series