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Cantonese Numbers: Counting, Tones and Money

Cantonese numbers in Jyutping: one to ten with tones, loeng5 before measure words, the spoken shortcuts jaa6 and saa1 aa6, ten-thousands, and Hong Kong prices.

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Key takeaways

  • Cantonese one to ten in Jyutping are jat1, ji6, saam1, sei3, ng5, luk6, cat1, baat3, gau2 and sap6.
  • Two is ji6 in counting but loeng5 (兩) before a measure word, as in 兩隻豬, 'two pigs'.
  • In speech, 廿 jaa6 replaces 'twenty' before a digit (廿三, 23), and 十 in mid-number can be said aa6.
  • Like other Chinese varieties, Cantonese groups large numbers by ten-thousands: 萬 maan6 is 10,000.
  • Informal Hong Kong prices use 蚊 man1 for dollars and 毫 hou4 for ten cents; HK$7.80 is 七個八.

Cantonese numbers use the same characters as Mandarin, so 一二三 will look familiar to anyone who has seen Chinese. The sounds, tones and spoken shortcuts are Cantonese's own. This reference gives each number in Jyutping, the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong romanisation that our Cantonese course also uses, where the final digit of each syllable is the tone number; Jyutping explained shows how to read it, and Cantonese tones explained covers how the tones sound.

Zero to ten with their tone numbers

Number Character Jyutping
0 零 ling4
1 一 jat1
2 二 ji6
3 三 saam1
4 四 sei3
5 五 ng5
6 六 luk6
7 七 cat1
8 八 baat3
9 九 gau2
10 十 sap6

These readings come from the comparison table in Wikipedia's Chinese numerals article. Note ng5, five, a syllable with no vowel at all: Jyutping's syllabic ng. Five of these end in -p, -t or -k (jat1, luk6, cat1, baat3 and sap6), which are the checked syllables whose tones Jyutping writes as 1, 3 or 6.

Ji6 or loeng5: the two words for two

Wikipedia's Chinese numerals article notes that 兩 is used instead of 二 before a classifier. Wiktionary gives its Cantonese reading as loeng5, and its entry for the measure word 隻 has the Cantonese example 兩隻豬, "two pigs". So you count jat1, ji6, saam1, but you say loeng5 when two things are being counted with a measure word. Cantonese measure words covers 隻, 個 and the rest.

For larger numbers, Wikipedia's table shows both 二百 and 兩百 for 200 in Cantonese, and both 二千 and 兩千 for 2,000.

Eleven to ninety-nine, and the spoken shortcuts

Numbers are built multiplicatively: digit, then place, then the next digit. Eleven is 十一 sap6 jat1, and Wikipedia notes that the leading "one" is usually dropped from 11 to 19. Twenty-one is 二十一 ji6 sap6 jat1.

Spoken Cantonese then contracts the tens. Wikipedia lists three shortcuts:

  • 廿 jaa6 replaces 二十 before another digit, a measure word or a noun: 廿三, 23. It is not used alone to mean 20.
  • 卅 replaces 三十 the same way and is pronounced saa1 aa6, so 31 is saa1 aa6 jat1.
  • 卌 replaces 四十 and is pronounced sei3 aa6, so 41 is sei3 aa6 jat1.

More generally, 呀 aa6 can stand for 十 in the middle of a number, after a multiplier and before a units digit: 六呀三 is 63. Wikipedia's Jyutping article gives a parallel example, 四十四 said sei3 a6 sei3 in casual speech.

A worked example: four numbers, written and spoken

  1. 23: written 二十三, ji6 sap6 saam1; spoken 廿三, jaa6 saam1.
  2. 45: 四十五, sei3 sap6 ng5, or in speech 卌五, sei3 aa6 ng5.
  3. 2,362: 二千三百六十二, ji6 cin1 saam1 baak3 luk6 sap6 ji6, following Wikipedia's table.
  4. 12,000: one ten-thousand and two thousands. Wikipedia gives the colloquial form 一萬二, jat1 maan6 ji6, where the "thousand" is understood.

Hundreds, thousands and the ten-thousand unit

Number Character Jyutping
100 百 baak3
1,000 千 cin1
10,000 萬 maan6
100,000,000 億 jik1

Wikipedia notes that Chinese numbers group by ten-thousands. Because 100,000 is 10 × 10,000, it is built as 十萬, "ten ten-thousands", and a million (100 × 10,000) follows the same pattern as 一百萬.

Hong Kong dollars: man1, hou4 and go3

The Hong Kong dollar is divided into 100 cents. Wikipedia explains that formal Cantonese uses 圓 or 元 for the dollar, while informal Cantonese uses 蚊, which Wiktionary records as man1 (a changed tone of man4) and lists as a Cantonese classifier for money. Ten cents is 毫 hou4, and the cent, 仙 sin1, a transliteration of "cent", is now used only in the stock market, according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives three price patterns, its Yale spellings converted to Jyutping here:

  • HK$7.80: 七個八, cat1 go3 baat3, "seven units eight".
  • HK$6.75: 六個七毫半, luk6 go3 cat1 hou4 bun3, "six units, seven ten-cents and a half".
  • HK$7.08: 七蚊零八仙, cat1 man1 ling4 baat3 sin1, "seven dollars zero eight cents".

Wiktionary also lists 個 go3 as a Cantonese classifier for money, which is why it appears in the first two.

Practising numbers in the app

Learn Cantonese for Beginners covers numbers, money, dates and time in its 12-unit path, with traditional characters and Jyutping shown together and tone contrasts practised early. It is free with ads, with optional in-app purchases, and it is one of our language-learning apps. For a wider plan, see learn Cantonese for beginners.

Good to know

Frequently asked questions

How do you count from one to ten in Cantonese?
In Jyutping: jat1 (一), ji6 (二), saam1 (三), sei3 (四), ng5 (五), luk6 (六), cat1 (七), baat3 (八), gau2 (九), sap6 (十). Zero is ling4 (零). The digit at the end of each syllable is its tone number.
When is two loeng5 rather than ji6 in Cantonese?
Use loeng5 (兩) when two is followed by a measure word. Wikipedia's Chinese numerals article notes that 兩 is used instead of 二 before a classifier, and Wiktionary's entry for the measure word 隻 gives the Cantonese example 兩隻豬, 'two pigs'. In plain counting two is ji6, and for 200 Wikipedia's table accepts both 二百 and 兩百 in Cantonese.
How do Cantonese speakers shorten numbers like 23 and 31?
Wikipedia notes that in spoken Cantonese 廿 jaa6 can replace 二十 before another digit, so 23 is 廿三, and 卅 replaces 三十, pronounced saa1 aa6, so 31 is saa1 aa6 jat1. Neither is used on its own to mean 20 or 30.
How do you say a price in Hong Kong dollars in Cantonese?
Informally, use 蚊 man1 for dollars and 毫 hou4 for ten cents. Wikipedia gives HK$7.80 as 七個八, literally 'seven units eight', and HK$7.08 as 七蚊零八仙, 'seven dollars zero eight cents'. Formal Cantonese uses 圓 or 元 for the dollar.

Sources

  1. Chinese numerals (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  2. Hong Kong dollar (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
  3. 兩 (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  4. 隻 (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  5. 蚊 (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
  6. Jyutping (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed

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