Mandarin numbers, time and dates for Taiwan
Counting and prices, telling the time, days and dates, and asking when a place opens — the Mandarin number basics everything else in Taiwan depends on, with pinyin and audio.
Numbers are the layer under every other topic in this phrasebook. You can survive a market, a clinic and a bank with almost no vocabulary if you can hear a price and say a quantity — and you can be completely stuck in a simple shop if you can't. Prices are counted in yuán, often said as kuài in speech, and the shopkeeper will usually also show you the total on a screen or their fingers, which is a mercy while you're learning.
Two quirks trip people up. Two is liǎng, not èr, when you're counting things: liǎng ge, liǎng bēi, liǎng wèi. And in strings of digits — phone numbers, room numbers, emergency numbers — one is often read yāo rather than yī, which is why the police number sounds like yāo yāo líng. Days of the week are numbered rather than named, so Monday is simply xīngqíyī, week-one.
30 phrases for numbers, time & dates
| What you say | Pinyin | Characters |
|---|---|---|
| One, two, three. | yī, èr, sān | 一、二、三 |
| Four, five, six. | sì, wǔ, liù | 四、五、六 |
| Seven, eight, nine, ten. | qī, bā, jiǔ, shí | 七、八、九、十 |
| One hundred. | yìbǎi | 一百 |
| One thousand. | yìqiān | 一千 |
| Two hundred and fifty. (how a price is said) | liǎngbǎi wǔ | 兩百五 |
| How many? | jǐ ge? | 幾個？ |
| One of them. | yí ge | 一個 |
| Two of them. (never èr ge) | liǎng ge | 兩個 |
| What time? | jǐ diǎn? | 幾點？ |
| What time is it now? | xiànzài jǐ diǎn? | 現在幾點？ |
| Half past three. | sān diǎn bàn | 三點半 |
| Nine in the morning. | zǎoshàng jiǔ diǎn | 早上九點 |
| Two in the afternoon. | xiàwǔ liǎng diǎn | 下午兩點 |
| Seven in the evening. | wǎnshàng qī diǎn | 晚上七點 |
| Today. | jīntiān | 今天 |
| Tomorrow. | míngtiān | 明天 |
| Yesterday. | zuótiān | 昨天 |
| Monday. | xīngqíyī | 星期一 |
| Saturday and Sunday. | xīngqíliù, xīngqítiān | 星期六、星期天 |
| This week. | zhège xīngqí | 這個星期 |
| Next month. | xià ge yuè | 下個月 |
| What's the date? | jǐ hào? | 幾號？ |
| The fifteenth of August. | bā yuè shíwǔ hào | 八月十五號 |
| What time do you open? | jǐ diǎn kāimén? | 幾點開門？ |
| Opening hours. | yíngyè shíjiān | 營業時間 |
| Five minutes. | wǔ fēnzhōng | 五分鐘 |
| Half an hour. | bàn xiǎoshí | 半小時 |
| How long does it take? | yào duōjiǔ? | 要多久？ |
What you'll hear back
The other half of the conversation — what the vendor, clerk or nurse says to you. Understanding these is usually harder than speaking.
| What they say | Pinyin | Characters |
|---|---|---|
| That's 350 altogether. | yígòng sānbǎi wǔshí yuán. | 一共三百五十元。 |
Questions people ask
When do I use 兩 instead of 二?
Use liǎng before a measure word when counting things — liǎng ge (two of them), liǎng wèi (a table for two). Use èr for the digit itself, in numbers like twelve or when reading a figure aloud.
Why is one sometimes said 'yāo'?
In digit strings — phone numbers, addresses, emergency numbers — yī is read yāo to avoid it being misheard as qī (seven). It's why 110 is yāo yāo líng.
How do I ask when somewhere opens or closes?
jǐ diǎn kāimén for opening, jǐ diǎn guānmén for closing. yíngyè shíjiān is the phrase for opening hours in general, and it's the label you'll see on the door.
How are dates said?
Month then day, with hào for the day: bā yuè shíwǔ hào is the fifteenth of August. jǐ hào asks what the date is; jǐ diǎn asks the time.