Key takeaways
- One to ten: một, hai, ba, bốn, năm, sáu, bảy, tám, chín, mười; zero is không.
- Four sound changes: one becomes mốt after 20, four is often tư after 20, five becomes lăm after 10, and mười becomes mươi from 20.
- Wikipedia notes lăm avoids confusion with năm, 'year', except in numbers ending in 05.
- Big numbers group in thousands, as in English: nghìn (ngàn in the South), triệu for a million, tỷ for a billion.
- The đồng (₫) has no subunits in use, coins were withdrawn in 2011, and the frequently used banknotes start at 1,000₫.
Vietnamese numbers look simple: ten words and a regular system for combining them. The catch is a handful of sound changes, where one, four, five and ten change their pronunciation inside larger numbers. Learn those four and you can say any price in Vietnam. Every syllable carries a tone, shown by a diacritic or, for the level tone in hai and ba, by no mark at all, so learn each number with audio.
One to ten
| Number | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| 0 | không |
| 1 | một |
| 2 | hai |
| 3 | ba |
| 4 | bốn |
| 5 | năm |
| 6 | sáu |
| 7 | bảy |
| 8 | tám |
| 9 | chín |
| 10 | mười |
Wikipedia notes that Vietnamese historically had two sets of numbers, native and Sino-Vietnamese (nhất, nhị, tam), and that the native set is used for everyday counting and mathematics. Sino-Vietnamese numbers survive in fixed expressions, much as Latin bi- survives in "bicycle".
Eleven to ninety-nine
Tens and units simply join: 11 is mười một, 19 is mười chín, 30 is ba mươi, 37 is ba mươi bảy. Wikipedia also notes the colloquial chục for ten, so twenty can be hai chục.
The four sound changes
| Change | When | Example |
|---|---|---|
| mười → mươi | ten as a multiplied tens word, from 20 | 20 hai mươi, 50 năm mươi |
| một → mốt | one as the last digit, from 21 to 91 | 21 hai mươi mốt |
| bốn → tư | four as the last digit after 20, more commonly | 24 hai mươi tư |
| năm → lăm | five as the last digit after 10 | 15 mười lăm, 25 hai mươi lăm |
Two details trip learners. Eleven keeps một: mười một, not mười mốt. And Wikipedia explains that lăm exists to avoid confusion with năm, "year". Numbers ending in 05, such as 605, keep năm, and some northern speakers say nhăm instead of lăm.
Hundreds and the zero in between
Hundreds use trăm: 300 is ba trăm, 345 is ba trăm bốn mươi lăm. When the tens digit is zero, Vietnamese says so. Wikipedia gives 101 as một trăm linh một in the North and một trăm lẻ một in the South and Centre. A zero hundreds digit is spoken as không trăm: 1,001 is một nghìn không trăm linh một.
Thousands, millions and billions
| Number | Vietnamese |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | nghìn (North), ngàn (South) |
| 10,000 | mười nghìn |
| 100,000 | trăm nghìn |
| 1,000,000 | triệu |
| 1,000,000,000 | tỷ |
Wikipedia notes that modern Vietnamese groups place values in thousands, as English does, unlike Chinese. Its example: 123,123,123 is một trăm hai mươi ba triệu một trăm hai mươi ba nghìn một trăm hai mươi ba, literally 123 million, 123 thousand, 123. When writing figures, Vietnamese uses a comma as the decimal separator.
A worked example: four prices
- 35,000₫: ba mươi lăm nghìn đồng. The five takes lăm.
- 250,000₫: hai trăm năm mươi nghìn đồng. Here five is a tens digit, so it stays năm.
- 1,500,000₫: một triệu năm trăm nghìn đồng.
- 21,000₫: hai mươi mốt nghìn đồng, with mốt.
In Ho Chi Minh City you would hear ngàn in place of nghìn in each one; northern versus southern Vietnamese covers other differences.
Prices in đồng
The đồng (₫, informally đ; code VND) once had subunits, the hào and xu, but Wikipedia notes both are obsolete because of inflation. Banknotes in common use run from 1,000₫ to 500,000₫, Wikipedia notes that coins were withdrawn from distribution in April 2011, and that since 2003 polymer notes have replaced cotton ones for 10,000₫ and above. To ask a price, use bao nhiêu, "how much?" or "how many?", which Wiktionary lists for both.
Ordinal numbers
Ordinals put thứ in front: thứ ba is "third", thứ năm "fifth". Wikipedia notes that for first and fourth the Sino-Vietnamese readings thứ nhất and thứ tư are more commonly used, and that second is occasionally thứ nhì instead of thứ hai.
Counting things
In Vietnamese, a number usually goes before the noun with a classifier between them, as in Wikipedia's một chục quả trứng, "ten eggs", with quả as the classifier. Vietnamese classifiers explains the system.
Learning Vietnamese numbers
Learn Vietnamese Language Fast groups vocabulary by topic, including numbers and shopping, with pronunciation activities for the tones and dictation to test your ear. It is one of our language-learning apps, and Vietnamese tones explained covers the tone marks in each number.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How do you count to ten in Vietnamese?
Why is 21 hai mươi mốt?
When is five pronounced lăm?
Is it nghìn or ngàn for a thousand?
Sources
- Vietnamese numerals (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Vietnamese đồng (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Vietnamese phonology (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- bao nhiêu (opens in a new tab)Wiktionary — accessed
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